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Sei was out for a run when a woman stepped out onto the sidewalk holding a stack of flyers. She'd usually just wave and run past, but something about this woman made her stop and take a flyer."We're opening a new vegan restaurant," she said, "Our grand opening will be this weekend! You should come!""If I have time, I will," she said. She thought that a new restaurant in the neighborhood serving healthy food would be a good thing, especially if she could convince some of her members to go with her. "Lua might go - she's usually up to try something new. Suyeon would have, but now that she's dating Moonbin she tries to sneak off and see him whenever she gets free time. Lucy said the other day she wanted to try eating healthier, so she might want to go."She ran down the street until she got back to the Fantagio dorm. She walked around the building a couple of times to cool down before she went in. Once inside, she walked down the hall to Weki Meki's apartment and unlocked the door. In the apartment, Lucy was watching the microwave, waiting for something to be done cooking."Hi Lucy," Sei said, "what's cooking?""Instant noodles," Lucy said. She held up the package. "Kim chi flavor! You want some?"Normally Sei would rather eat something healthier than instant noodles, but she was hungry after her run and didn't feel like taking time to cook something else. "That sounds delicious," she said. She opened the cabinet and got out a bowl, putting it on the counter next to Lucy's. Then she got down a glass and went to the refrigerator to get some water. She filled her glass and drank half of it while waiting for the alarm on the microwave. She watched as Lucy took the noodles out of the microwave and divided it between the bowls. Lucy opened the seasoning packet, poured some of it over each bowl of noodles. She carried the bowls to the table and sat down.Sei sat down opposite Lucy, pulled two pairs of chopsticks out of the glass of them in the middle of the table and handed one pair to Lucy. They started eating their noodles, slurping joyfully. After a few bites, Lucy asked "So how was your run?"Sei put down her bowl and pulled the flyer out of her shorts pocket. "It was good," she said. "I ran into a woman who's opening a new restaurant in the neighborhood! We should go sometime - you said you wanted to start eating healthier!"Lucy took the flyer from Sei's hand and looked it over. "M-maybe?" she said hesitantly.Sei paused with her chopsticks halfway to her mouth. "That doesn't sound very confident," she said. "What's wrong?"Lucy pointed out a word on the flyer. "It's a vegan restaurant. If I'm going out to eat, I want meat.""Vegan chefs are really creative, though," Sei said. "I bet it'll be really good, even though there's no meat."Lucy looked doubtful. "Maybe," she said. "I'll give it a try, but I won't promise I'll like it.""That's all I can ask," Sei said, slurping another mouthful of noodles.For the next few minutes they ate in silence except for the slurping of their noodles. Looking around the apartment, Sei paused between bites to ask "Where's everyone else?""Elly and Lua are down doing laundry," Lucy began. "Yoojung and Doyeon are in the small bedroom, Rina's in the big bedroom playing games on her phone, and Suyeon went for a walk - certainly not to see Moonbin." Suyeon and Astro's Moonbin had met back in the spring when they recorded a duet. Singing together had progressed to texting and talking on the phone, which had progressed to clandestine meetups whenever they could arrange it. Weki Meki still had at least two years to go on the "no dating" clause of their contract (assuming the agency didn't decide to extend it), but youth and hormones didn't necessarily fit to agency schedules. Suyeon and Moonbin were a couple. Lua was dating someone in another group but wouldn't say who. Sei thought that Elly dating someone, but Elly would never say anything about it. Yoojung and Doyeon had been a couple since their time together in I.O.I., so that left Sei, Lucy, and Rina as the singletons in Weki Meki."Certainly not for lack of trying," Sei thought as she drank the last of her broth. Sei had had a crush on Lucy since they'd first met, but if Lucy had noticed, she hadn't acknowledged it. She'd do skinships with Sei whenever they were out in public, but once they were in private, that all stopped. "Maybe my gaydar's broken and she's really straight," Sei thought. That was a preferable option to Lucy being gay but not being interested in Sei. Regardless, Sei was glad to have Lucy as a friend - of all their members, she was the one Sei was closest to. She just. . . sometimes. . . wished they could be something more.Sei was snapped out of her reverie by Lucy asking "Are you done?" and reaching out for Sei's bowl. Sei handed her the bowl and Lucy went to the sink to clean up. Sei watched her all the way - she never got tired of looking at Lucy."I'll wash the dishes," Lucy said, "and you can dry and put them away after your shower.""You cooked and you're doing this dishes?" Sei asked. "You're going to spoil me!""You can make it up to me by watching my dramas with me tonight.""Sure thing!" Sei as she went to get a towel out of the closet. "What are we watching?""I recorded the last three episodes of 'What's Wrong with Secretary Kim' and I was hoping to get caught up tonight." Lucy put the last clean bowl in the drainer and turned around and leaned against the counter while talking to Sei. Sei couldn't help but notice that this made Lucy's legs look even longer than they actually are."Stop it, Sei," she said to herself as she gathered up her pajamas. "There's no use making yourself crazy by wanting what you can't have." She didn't notice that Doyeon had come out and heard her say this."What's that?" Doyeon asked."Oh. . . nothing," Sei said, "um. . . Unnie, can I talk to you about something tomorrow?""Sure," Doyeon said. "Wake me up early and we can talk before tomorrow's promotions. Now you'd better hurry and get showered before Lucy bursts." And with that, Doyeon grabbed a couple of bottles of water from the fridge and headed back into the small bedroom.Sei hurried through her shower and only took time to towel dry her hair. When she came back into the common room, Lucy was waiting eagerly for her, practically quivering with excitement. They curled up on the couch and Lucy started the shows.Sei was so aware of every place that she was incidentally touching Lucy that she had a hard time focusing on the show. She pulled out a leave-in conditioner that she'd brought with her and started combing it through her hair. It was kind of awkward without a mirror, but since they'd died her hair red she had to be extra careful to protect it."You're missing big chunks of your hair," Lucy said. "Let me do that for you.""No, I've got it," Sei said."No you don't," Lucy contradicted her. She had Sei sit on the floor in front of her and started coming the conditioner through her hair. Since Lucy was able to see what she was doing, applying the conditioner went much faster with her doing it."All done," she said. "Now just lean back and watch the show." Sei leaned back against Lucy's calves, doing her best to focus on the show. After a few minutes, Elly and Lua came in and started watching the show with them while folding laundry. As much as she had been enjoying the time alone with Lucy, Sei was kind of glad to have some other members around - as much as she was enjoying being alone with Lucy, having the other members there deflected some of Lucy's attention away from her, making it easier for her to relax.After five minutes before curfew, Suyeon came back. The others teased her about having been out with Moonbin, but Sei couldn't help feeling a little jealous of her: At least Suyeon was getting to date the person she wanted to instead of having to pretend she wasn't interested. After letting the teasing go on for a few minutes, Suyeon shut them all up with the reminder "Big day of promos tomorrow. Everyone go get some sleep!"Suyeon knocked on the door of the small bedroom and gave Doyeon and Yoojung a slow count of 10 to get decent before she went in to her bed. The rest of the group went to their beds in the big bedroom - which wasn't actually any bigger than the small room, it just had more beds in it. Rina had the lower bunk beneath Sei bunk, and was already asleep when everyone else went to bed. Lucy slept in the top bunk of the bed next to Sei and Rina's, close enough that Sei could reach out and touch her if she wanted to. Lua had the bunk under Lucy, and Elly slept in the bottom bunk of the third bed."Good night everybody," Sei said as she pulled up her blankets. Because she had rolled over toward the wall, she couldn't see Lucy lying there watching her as she fell asleep. Just before she fell asleep, Sei remembered she was supposed to get up early the next morning to talk with Doyeon. She rolled over and set an alarm on her phone, then promptly fell asleep. Lucy reached across the gap between their beds and pulled up Sei's blanket for her, which had fallen down when she rolled over.
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Sei woke up at the first beep of her phone's alarm. She scrambled to turn off the alarm before it woke up any of her roommates, then quietly climbed down the ladder from her bed and left the room. She was going to go into the small bedroom to wake up Doyeon when she saw a light on in the kitchen."Maybe Doyeon-unnie already woke up and she's in the kitchen making some tea," Sei thought to herself. "Better check before I risk waking up either of the other unnies in the small bedroom."Walking quietly so as not to wake anyone else, Sei quietly walked into the kitchen. In the kitchen doorway she stopped suddenly, frozen in her tracks, when she saw who was in the kitchen: It was Lucy, leaning against the counter eating a tangerine while she waited for the kettle to heat up."Good morning, unnie," Lucy said, smiling at Sei.Sei quickly covered her surprise and went into the kitchen. "Good morning!" she said, truly happy to see Lucy even if it meant not getting to have her conversation with Doyeon this morning. "What are doing up so early?"Lucy shrugged. "I couldn't sleep anymore, so I got up early. I'm excited about the promos today. How about you?"Sei put a piece of her tangerine in her mouth and chewed. "I'm actually a little nervous," she said. And she was, just not for the reason Lucy would think. Sei wasn't nervous about the day's promos. She was finding herself getting nervous about talking to Lucy. Which was silly: Lucy was her good friend. Maybe even her best friend. But ever since she recognized what she was feeling about Lucy, she found herself getting nervous around her. And suddenly she realized she'd been silent for the better part of a minute, and Lucy was staring at her waiting for her to talk and she just couldn't and. . . she was saved by the kettle whistling.The activity of taking down teacups, choosing what kind of tea they wanted, and pouring the water, gave Sei a moment to mentally reset. "Yeah," she said, once the preparation of tea was finished, "I'm a little bit nervous about the promos today. I don't know why." She laughed nervously."You'll do fine!" Lucy said. "Interviewers love you, and Ki-Lings love you!"Just then Doyeon came around the corner into the kitchen, her eyes still bleary from sleep. "Sei? I thought you were going to wake me up to talk about something.""Oh, um. . ." Obviously she couldn't talk to Doyeon about her crush on Lucy with Lucy standing right there. "I got caught up in making tea with Lucy and forgot. Anyway, there's not time before promos now - we'll have to talk about it another time. Do you want me to make you a cup of tea, unnie?""No thanks," Doyeon said, stretching and yawning. "I'm going to go get a shower and try to wake up for today's promos."As Doyeon left, Lucy asked Sei "What did you need to talk to Doyeon-unnie about? Is it something I can help with?"Thinking quickly, Sei shook her head. "No, it's just I've seen her do some things with her makeup that I think would work well with my new hair and I wanted to see if I could get her to show me."Lucy nodded. "Yeah, Doyeon-unnie's good with makeup." She drank the rest of her tea and put the cup in the sink. "I'm going to go get dressed and get started on my makeup.""Okay. I'm going to finish my breakfast and then we should start waking up the other members.""Sounds good," Lucy said. "Just don't take too long. Suyeon and Yoojung always take forever to get ready."^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^Three hours later, the girls were in a radio studio, earphones on and microphones in front of them."We're chatting live with Weki Meki!" the host said excitedly. Looking around at all the girls, he said "I know this is a common question in interviews, but it's a lot of fun: If you were a guy, which one of your bandmates would you want to date, and why. Sei, let's start with you.""Ummm, if I was a guy, I would want to date. . . " Sei bought herself a moment to think by repeating the question back. "Well, I'm kind of scatterbrained and disorganized, so I'd need to date someone organized. I think I'd better date Suyeon-unnie!"Suyeon looked surprised. 'Me? I'm not really that organized - it only seems that way because Doyeon keeps track of things and tries to make me look good so no one will want her to be the leader.""You're selling yourself short, Ji Suyeon-unnie," Doyeon said. "You're a great leader and we're lucky to have you." The rest of the members chimed in with their agreement. "But if Sei wants to date someone really organized, she should date Lucy. Even though she's the maknae, Lucy keeps track of all our promos and performances while also keeping track of all her schoolwork. Yes, she should definitely date Lucy." There was something indefinable in Doyeon's eyes when she looked at Sei while saying this. Sei wasn't sure if she meant more than she was saying or not - and obviously she couldn't ask in the middle of a live radio interview! She just had to swallow her nervousness and keep going."So how 'bout it Lucy?" Sei asked. "If I was a guy, would you date me?""Well, I've always said I wanted someone who'd take care of me, and Sei would definitely do that - she'd make sure I exercised and ate healthy food. I wouldn't mind having to be the organized one in the couple." She smiled at Sei. Even though this was just a hypothetical interview question, not something real, it made Sei's stomach flutter."OK," the host said, "it sounds like Sei and Lucy would make a great couple." (Sei's stomach fluttered again.) "Stay with us until after the break to find out who the other members of Weki Meki would want to date!"Sei's stomach kept fluttering. Every time Lucy looked at her, it fluttered more. Had Lucy figured out the way she felt about her?
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The members of Weki Meki were sitting around chatting - they needed to get to sleep so they'd be rested for the filming of the video for "All I Want" the next day, but they were all too excited to go to bed. They were interrupted from teasing Suyeon about how excited she must be to get to see Moonbin again when Lucy's phone beeped for about the 10th time that night."OOoooh," Elly said, "sounds like Lucy's got an admirer!"Lucy blushed. "It's MJ. He's excited getting to see me tomorrow." MJ was one of Moonbin's fellow Astro members who Lucy had recorded a duet with earlier in the year. "I thought he was excited when we first met, but that was nothing compared to this. He's like a little puppy!"The others started teasing Lucy about her admirer, which only made her blush more. The only one who didn't take part in the teasing was Sei. She quietly left the group, thinking no one even noticed, and went to her bed. She plugged earbuds in her ears, turned on some music, and lay there listening to it, trying not to think about Lucy. When she felt the tears start to overflow her eyes and run down her face, she angrily wiped them away and rolled over to face the wall. She knew she had no reason to think Lucy would be hers - she didn't even know for sure whether or not Lucy was gay - but it still hurt to think of her with somebody else.^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^The next morning Sei was one of the last ones to wake up. She was coming back from the shower when she ran into Lua."You'd better hurry up and get dressed for the video," Sei said. "Manager-nim will be here to pick us up soon!"Lua looked confused. "What are you talking about? This is what I'm wearing for the video!" Lua looked down at the white sweater and shorts she was wearing. "I think I'll stand out with all the red and green everyone else will be wearing."Sei let out a little laugh. All the other members had chosen the most elegant outfits they could come up with, wanting to look good when they were on screen together with their sunbae-nims. Leave it to Lua to try to bring back their sporty aesthetic from the "I Don't Like Your Girlfriend" video."Oh, I definitely think you'll stand out," Sei said. If there was a little bit of snark in her voice, Lua didn't notice. As Lua skipped off to the living room to wait for everyone else, Sei headed to her room to get dressed. As she walked along, Doyeon fell in walking beside her."Hey, are you okay?" Doyeon asked.Sei looked confused. "What are you talking about?"Doyeon rolled her eyes. "You were the first one to bed last night, and you didn't tell anyone you were going. That's not like you. You're never the first one to bed, and if anyone else is still up when you go to bed, you always give hugs to all your members who are still awake. So I'm asking: Are you okay?""Suyeon's right," Sei said. "You would make a good leader - you notice everything!"Doyeon laughed. "I also noticed that you avoided my question twice. I'm going to be watching you today, and I'm here if you need me."Sei nodded. "Thank you, unni." She turned away from Doyeon and went into her room, where she almost ran into Lucy."Sei-unni!" Lucy said brightly. "You'd better hurry and get dressed - Manager-nim will be here soon!"Sei took out the red and white dress she'd chosen for the day and started getting dressed. Lucy spun around in front of her and asked "What do you think? How do I look?"Sei's mouth went dry and her heart was in her throat. She didn't trust herself to answer at first, so she bought a little time by looking Lucy slowly up and down. Coughing softly, she said "You look beautiful. Very grown up."Lucy's smile widened and her face brightened even more. She kissed Sei on the cheek. "Thank you, Sei-unni! You always say the sweetest things," she said, and left Sei alone in the room to finish getting dressed.Sei's cheek felt like it was on fire where Lucy had kissed it. She smiled slightly as she finished getting her dress on. Maybe everyone was wrong about Lucy and MJ - maybe they were just friends. Maybe there was still hope.^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^Filming the video was a lot of fun - Sei had never worked on a video with all her sunbae-nims before. There were so many people that there was always something happening. It wasn't like a regular video shoot where there was a lot of time spent waiting on the crew to get ready while the band got bored. Even when she wasn't in front of the camera, Sei never had time to get bored - there was always someone interesting around to talk to, something going on. It would have been perfect except that every time Sei tried to talk to Lucy, she found MJ there talking to her.When lunch time came, the production company set up tables and had ordered box lunches for everyone. Sei grabbed her box lunch and tried to find Lucy, but by the time she found her in the rush of people, she was already sitting with MJ. Sei sniffed and tried not to let on that it bothered her. She found a seat by Lime, the main rapper for HELLOVENUS, and for the next hour totally forgot about Lucy. Lime had a great sense of humor and told so many great stories about her time in K-pop - she'd been in HELLOVENUS since before Sei was trainee. Sei remembered having had a HELLOVENUS poster on her bedroom wall before she left to become a trainee. If she hadn't been so preoccupied with Lucy, Sei might have noticed that Lime was flirting with her shamelessly. As it was, Lime was having such a great day that she didn't even notice that Sei didn't notice her flirting - she just thought Sei was playing hard to get and, enjoying the chase, flirted harder.As lunchtime came to an end, they all cleared up the area and started getting ready to film again. Sei looked up from the trashcan just in time to see Lucy and MJ coming back from a walk. They were standing close together and he had his hand on the small of her back. He took her coat and went to hang it up. Sei felt her vision start to waver and knew that if she didn't find a place to be alone soon, everyone would see her crying. She didn't want that, so she quickly ducked into an alcove she had noticed behind the tree. She was crying quietly when she saw Alice and Jin Jin come stand by the Christmas tree, obviously talked heatedly about something. There was no way for Sei to get away, besides the fact that she was still crying, so she just made herself as small as possible in the alcove and hoped they didn't notice her."I'm telling you," Alice was saying, "she's not interested in him.""Then why doesn't she say something?" Jin Jin responded."Because she's too polite," Alice snapped. Jin Jin mumbled something that Sei couldn't hear, but soon Alice interrupted him and went on talking. "I'm giving you a chance to take action because he's your member, but if you don't put a stop to it, I will. Just think how it will look if your sunbae-nim, a woman, has to take action because you wouldn't or couldn't. Just think about that."And with that, Alice stormed off. Jin Jin stood staring silently after her for a moment then walked purposefully away, apparently to go find his member. Once she was sure neither of them would notice her, Sei dried her face and came out from behind the tree. She looked around as she got ready for the afternoon's filming, wondering which of the girls was having to put up with unwanted attention from one of the guys in Astro. Since it was Alice who had confronted Jin Jin about it, she figured it was one of her members. She spent the afternoon watching the HELLOVENUS members to see if she could figure out who it was, but didn't see anything. Apparently whatever Jin Jin had said to his member had put a stop to everything.When the filming ended, everyone said good-bye and got ready to head back to their dorms (or in HELLOVENUS's case, apartments). There was a last minute flurry of hugs and exchanges of phone numbers, then it was time to go.As Sei climbed into Weki Meki's van, she overheard a snippet of Suyeon and Doyeon talking."I talked to Alice at lunch," Suyeon said. "Did the unwanted attention stop after that?""I think so," Doyeon said, then motioned for Suyeon to be quiet.As she settled into a back seat by the window, Sei put in her headphones, turned on her music, and thought about what she had just heard. Apparently at the same time as Alice was telling Jin Jin to stop one of his members from paying unwanted attention, she was paying unwanted attention to a Weki Meki member. Sei thought about deleting Alice's name from her phone, but stopped upon reflecting on how rude it would be to treat a sunbae that way, regardless of how badly the sunbae behaved.But which Weki Meki member had Alice been harassing? If Sei couldn't do anything against Alice, she could at least comfort her victim. Sei knew that she'd barely talked to Alice before lunch, and she guessed that Alice would know that Suyeon was straight, and that no one had a chance of breaking up Doyeon and Yoojung. Then it hit her - she remembered seeing Alice talking to Lua several times over the course of the morning. That must have been it! She made a mental note to check up on her friend when they got back to their dorm, not realizing how her inadvertent eavesdropping had caused her to totally misunderstand the situation.
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On the way home from the video shoot, Manager-nim had Suyeon use her phone and the band credit card to order chicken delivery for that night's dinner. Sei was so hungry that she didn't even care that fried chicken wasn't the healthiest dinner they could be eating. Her mouth watered just thinking of it.They got back to the dorm to discover they'd timed things perfectly - they'd been in their apartment for less than a minute when the chicken delivery man knocked on the door. Suyeon took the package from him, thanked him as he shut the door on his way out, and then everyone gathered around her as she stood at the table and unpacked the delicious things she had ordered.Once they had all filled their plates, they dispersed into small groups scattered around the apartment and sat around eating and talking. Sei managed to get Lua alone for a moment and asked her "Are you okay?"Lua nodded. "I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?"Sei got a serious look on her face. "I heard about this morning," she said solemnly. She didn't want to say any more than that - if Lua was upset by what had happened, she didn't want to upset her further.Lua thought back to this morning, when both Manager-nim and Suyeon had fussed at her for not dressing formally enough for the video shoot. She shrugged. "It wasn't the first time something like that happened, and it probably won't be the last."Sei couldn't believe how calm Lua was being. "You're not upset about it?"Lua thought for a moment. "I was a little upset at the time, but I'm not going to let it ruin my day."Sei was so impressed by how brave Lua was being. She leaned over and gave her friend a hug. "Well, if you ever want to talk about it, I'm here for you."Lua waved away Sei's concern. "It's over. It's in the past. I've already forgotten about it."Sei nodded. She didn't know if she could forgive Alice as easily as Lua apparently had, but she vowed to try in order to keep the peace with their sunbaes. Maybe it was just a one-time thing and out of character for Alice.Just then Lucy came over and sat down with them. "Wasn't today a fun day? I had a great time today."Lucy's good mood was so infectious that Sei found herself smiling along with her. Even with the MJ situation, she was so happy that her friend was happy that she almost wasn't upset about the fact that Lucy was apparently dating someone other than her. She was still upset, but she managed to keep that on the inside, and she was genuinely happy for her friend."When do you think you'll see MJ again?" Sei asked.A cloud passed over Lucy's face. "I don't know," she said. "I'll find a way to deal with that in the future."Sei nodded and changed the subject, not wanting to spoil Lucy's good mood. She told some of the stories that Lime had told at lunch, and soon they were all laughing and enjoying themselves.^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^Over the next several days, Sei found herself really needing an unnie's advice. What did she do about the Lucy and MJ situation? Did she give in gracefully, never letting Lucy know how she felt about her? Or did she challenge MJ for Lucy's affection? And did her apparent attraction to MJ mean Lucy was straight, or did Sei still stand a chance?Unfortunately, they were kept so busy with holiday promotions that Sei never had a chance for a private conversation with Doyeon or any of the other unnies (though Doyeon was the one she'd prefer to get advice from).One afternoon there was a rumor that they'd get that evening off - which turned out to be true. Before Sei had a chance to arrange a private time with Doyeon, Lucy had come bounding up to her."Sei! Sei!" An excited Lucy was even more of a bundle of energy than a regular Lucy. "Since we've got tonight off, do you want to go check out that restaurant you were talking about last week?""Sure!" Sei said, wondering what had prompted Lucy's sudden excitement for vegan food. "We missed the grand opening, but that might be a good thing - they'll have had time to get used to the kitchens and the chefs should be at the top of their game.""Yay! It sounds great!" Lucy skipped off to get back into position so they could finish dance practice.As practice started up again, Sei kept stealing glances at Lucy. At one point she got so caught up in watching the maknae dance that she got out of place and ran into Doyeon."What's wrong?" Doyeon asked her as they got reset for the next run-through. "It's not like you to get out of place.""I just got caught up in watching Lucy dance," Sei said.Doyeon nodded. "We still have to have a conversation about that," she said. "Maybe during off-time this evening?"Sei shook her head. "Lucy and I are going to check out the new vegan restaurant down the street.""Just don't forget," Doyeon said, "you had questions and I probably have answers."Just then the music started up again and they couldn't talk anymore.^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^Sei and Lucy were walking back to their dorm after dinner."That was actually good!" Lucy said."You don't have to sound so surprised," Sei said. "I told you vegan food can be good.""I know you said it," Lucy said, "but I couldn't wrap my head around it until I experienced it for myself."For the next several minutes they couldn't talk, thanks to the noise of a road construction crew. When it was quiet enough that they could talk again, Lucy was the one to reopen the conversation."Do you ever think about our dating clause?" she asked.Sei was taken aback by this sudden change of topic. "What about it?""Well," Lucy said, "the agencies put all new idols under 'no dating' clauses, but so many people are violating them. Are the agencies just clueless, or do they not really care, or what?"Sei thought for a moment. "I think so long as we keep it out of the eyes of the fans, they'll let us got away with things. We just can't be like Hyuna and E'Dawn and go on TV shouting 'we're dating!' the day after the label has just said 'they're not dating!'.""But isn't that kind of like lying to the fans?" Lucy asked. "I don't like lying to the Ki-Lings."Sei found her forehead wrinkling with the effort of thinking of answers to Lucy's questions - being an unnie was hard! "It's not like really, really lying," she finally said. "It's just. . . the fans have an idea of what we're like, and they'll think we're like that as long as we don't show them anything different, so we don't show them anything different, because they like being right."Lucy laughed. "That gives me a headache just to think about! But I think I get what you're talking about." They were getting closer to the dorm by this time, and Lucy started walking more slowly. About half a block from the dorm, she stopped. "I'm not ready to go back inside yet," she said. She led Sei to the little park next to the dorm. "Let's stay out here for a while." She flopped down in the grass and looked up at the sky, watching the stars come out.Sei sat down next to her. "So. . . what brings out all the questions about the dating clause. How you found someone you want to violate it with?""I think so," Lucy said. "Actually, I know so. It's just hard to decide - if you try dating someone and it doesn't work out, your relationship is changed forever. You can never go back to the way things were."Sei had spent hours thinking about this very dilemma and was no closer to a satisfactory solution than she had been when she started. "But that's assuming it doesn't work out. And you never know about that. I mean, look at Doyeon and Yoojung - it must be wonderful to have someone who loves you that much."They sat in silence for a while, looking at the stars. Finally, Sei asked "So. . . do I know this person you're thinking of dating?"Lucy nodded. "I'd say you do," she said."Are you going to tell me who it is?"Lucy shook her head.Sei's eyes widened. "Do I even get a hint?"Lucy shook her head again. "You'd guess any hint I gave you, so that'd be the same as telling you. You'll find out when everyone else does - when this person gets their courage up to ask to date me."Sei shook her head in disbelief. She couldn't believe MJ hadn't asked Lucy to be his girlfriend yet - he'd had the perfect chance when they went for a walk after lunch on the day of filming "All I Want." After a pause, Sei asked "So if they ask you, you're going to say yes?""I'm planning to, and I can't think of anything that would make me change my mind," Lucy said, demonstrating the self-assurance that made her seem older than some of her unnies.A shooting star flashed across the sky. Sei scowled at it. "Why tease me with a wish," she thought, "when I already know I can't have what I want."
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It had been a hard day - nothing but dance practice and singing lessons, all day long. As always, Sei threw herself into the work, always giving 110%. When they got back to the dorm, she rushed to be one of the first ones to get a shower. When she came out, she found Lua typing something on her phone, a devious grin on her face."What are you doing with my phone?" Sei asked.Lua looked up but made no attempt to hide what she was doing. "Your message alert kept going off while you were in the shower. I helped you out by taking care of it." She finished what she was typing and hit send with a flourish before handing the phone to Sei.Sei looked down at her phone, trying to figure out what Lua had been doing."You'd better hurry," Sei said. "She'll be here to pick you up in about 10 minutes.""Who?" Sei looked startled as she looked up from the screen and into Lua's eyes."Lime, of course." Lua said, as if the answer should have been totally obvious. "By the way, we think you two make a really great couple."Sei's mouth dropped open in surprise. "We?" Her brain was going in a million different directions at once, trying to process this new information, and it went to the first thing it didn't understand."My girlfriend and I," Lua said with a shrug.Ordinarily having learned the gender of Lua's mysterious significant other would be a significant event, but right now the most important thing to Sei was to clear up this misunderstanding about her relationship with Lime. "We're not a couple," she said with a nervous laugh. "Lime and I. We're not a couple."Lua raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure about that?"Sei nodded, her face a study in fierce determination. "Yes, absolutely.""Okay, okay," Lua said, raising her hands as if fending off an attack. "You're not a couple. But are you sure that Lime knows that? And either way, you need to be dressed and ready to go in just a few minutes."Sei nodded and headed to her room. As she got dressed, she turned things over in her head. She and Lime weren't a couple, were they? That definitely seemed like something she would know, without Lua having to tell her. They'd just met a little over week ago, at the "All I Want Filming." They texted back and forth several times a day, but that was something friends do, right? And it didn't mean anything that they signed off their texts with kissy-face emojis. Sei kissed all her friends in real life all the time, so why wouldn't she online as well? And she and Lime had gotten together to hang out a couple of times, but that was definitely something friends do. It just gave Lua the wrong impression because they all had so few friends outside Weki Meki.Sei was dressed by this time, so she headed to the door to put her shoes on and wait for Lime. The whole time, she kept turning things over in her mind. She was pretty clear that she and Lime weren't a couple. But was Lime sure of it? It occurred to her that it was entirely possible that Lime thought they were a couple.How did Sei find out if Lime thought they were a couple? And what did she do if she did? Doyeon-unnie would know what to do. Sei rushed to the door of the small bedroom and knocked. Yoojung-unnie answered the door, her hair up in curlers and her makeup half-done."Sei! You look worried. . ." Yoojung said."Is Doyeon-unnie awake? I need to talk to her!"Yoojung shook her head. "She's down in the gym swimming laps." - leave it to Doyeon to be exercising on top of the day's work they'd just had - "Maybe it's something I can help you with?"Sei considered asking Yoojung for help. Technically she was an unnie, but she didn't act like an unnie. A lot of times she acted more like the maknae than Lucy did. "No, I don't think so. . . - Thank you, though!""Tell you what," Yoojung said, "Doyeon and I are going out for ramen after she gets done swimming. Why don't you and Lucy come with us?"Sei paused a moment, wondering if Yoojung had meant anything in particular by inviting her and Lucy together like that. "No, I can't. Lime's coming over. If fact, she should be here any-"Just then there was a knock at the door."That's her now. I've gotta go! Bye, unnie!"Sei hurried to the door. When she opened it, Lime rushed in and caught her up in a big hug."I'm so happy to see you!" she said. "How are you?""I'm good," Sei said, as she wondered if this was a friendly hug or if Lime thought there was something else going on. "A little tired, but good.""Well," Lime said, "I know of a great tempura shop not far from the dorm, and I was going to treat you to dinner. Unless - you haven't already eaten, have you?""No," Sei said, shaking her head. "I had been thinking of making some kimchi fried rice, but tempura with you sounds way better." Her concerns over whether or not Lime thought they were a couple were momentarily overridden by the thought of a delicious dinner."Well, let's get going - if we get there soon, there won't be a crowd." Lime took Sei's hand and led her out of the apartment.^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^After a wonderful dinner of tempura vegetables and prawns, Sei and Lime went to the park for conversation and people-watching. During the course of this conversation, Sei started figuring things out: Lime didn't think the two of them were a couple - but she wanted them to be.At one point the subject of names came up during conversation. "Only my parents still call me Seo-jeong," Sei said. "Even my big brother calls me Sei."Lime nodded. "A few people who knew me before my debut still call me Hye-rim, but pretty much everyone calls me Lime, except for a few special people who call me by my nickname: Haley." After a short pause she continued. "I'd like it if you called me Haley.""OK, Haley," Sei said, relishing the way the foreign name felt in her mouth.After a while, the stars started coming out. "I've got to be back soon - curfew," Sei said awkwardly. She felt immature having a curfew when Haley was free to come and go as she pleased."Oh yeah," Haley said. "Don't want you getting in trouble."They started walking back to the dorm. As they walked, Sei reached out and took Haley's hand. Haley looked back and smiled at her, then interlaced their fingers. All too quickly, though, they were standing in the hall outside Weki Meki's apartment. Haley looked down at Sei, the difference between their heights most apparently when they stood close together like this.Haley took a deep breath and said "Sei, I'd like to kiss you. May I?"Not trusting her voice, Sei just nodded and looked up at Haley. Haley leaned down and kissed Sei softly, just brushing their lips together. This was followed by a slightly longer kiss, then another, then Haley stood up."That's all we've got time for tonight," she said. "Besides, this isn't exactly the best place if we want to keep you out of trouble as far as your dating clause."Sei nodded, inwardly marveling at how everything was the same after kissing Haley, but at the same time everything was completely different. She smiled at Haley. "Will I see you again soon?" she asked.Haley nodded. "Count on it. But you'd better hurry up and get inside - I don't want to be in trouble with Suyeon for keeping you out after curfew on our first date."Sei's smile grew even wider as she mouthed the words "first date!" She rushed forward and hugged Haley, then planted a kiss on her cheek, then turned and went into the apartment, eager to tell her members about her new girlfriend.As she went inside, though, everything changed. As she turned from locking the door, the smile faded from her lips. Lucy looked at her and then ran into the large bedroom, slamming the door behind her. Lua was sitting on the couch, a dismayed look on her face, with an angry Suyeon looming over her. And Doyeon was standing in the middle of the room, staring at Sei, obviously not happy."Do you see what you've done?" Doyeon asked. "I told you we needed to talk."Sei struggled to recapture her happiness of just a few seconds previous, but it was nowhere to be found. She wasn't sure what had happened while she was out with Haley, but according to what she could see, it wasn't good and it was her fault.
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Sei started to follow Lucy into the large bedroom, but Doyeon stopped her."She'll be fine," Doyeon said, "but you and I need to talk." Doyeon looked over at Suyeon and Lua, deeply engrossed in conversation on the couch. "Let's go in the kitchen. You can make us a cup of tea."Once they were in the kitchen, Doyeon leaned against the counter and watched while Sei filled the kettle and turned it on, then got down 2 mugs and put tea bags in them.Sei turned to face Doyeon. "Okay unnie, can you tell me what's going on now, because I'm confused and a little scared. I came in and everyone was angry and somehow I've got the feeling that it's my fault and I don't understand."Doyeon stepped forward and enfolded Sei in a hug. "It is all kind of because of you, but you didn't do anything wrong, except not understand what was going on around you."Sei looked up at Suyeon. "I don't understand."Doyeon sat down on the floor, pulling Sei down with her."Well," she said, "let's handle the easy part first: Suyeon is upset with Lua because Lua doesn't understand the dangers of playing matchmaker, so all of this is kind of her fault too.""All of what?" Sei asked, more confused than ever. "Besides, I would have gone out with Haley tonight even if Lua hadn't told her I would."Now it was Doyeon's turn to look confused. "Haley?""Lime," Sei clarified. "She said only a few people who are really special to her call her Haley and she said she'd like it if I called her Haley."Doyeon nodded. "Okay. Anyway, would you have had the idea that you and Haley were a couple - or ought to be a couple - if Lua hadn't planted the idea there?"Sei shook her head. "Not right away. . . I'm sure I would have come up with it eventually.""I'm not so sure," Doyeon said. "Until Lua's meddling tonight, I think you were happy for you and Lime to be friends and had never considered anything further."The kettle went off then. Sei got up, poured water into their mugs, and then brought the tea down to the floor."I still don't understand why Lua getting me and Haley together is a problem. She kissed me! I'm happy! Well, I was happy, until I came in and everyone was upset."Doyeon nodded. "Lucy saw you kissing.""But I don't see how that's a prob-" A look of realization dawned on Sei's face. "She's afraid someone else might have seen us and I'd get in trouble for violating our dating clause? But no one did!"Doyeon covered her face with her palm and shook her head slowly. She looked up at Sei. "You really don't get it, do you?"The look of understanding on Sei's face was gone, replaced by confusion again. "Apparently not," she admitted."Lucy likes you," Doyeon said simply."And I like her," Sei said. "She my best fr-" Again the dawning realization. "You mean she like likes me."Doyeon nodded."But. . ." Sei looked confused again. "I thought Lucy liked MJ."Doyeon shook her head vigorously."But the texts," Sei protested. "And every time I tried to talk to her on the filming day, she was always talking to him!""No," Doyeon corrected her. "He was talking to her. Harassing her. It got so out of control that we had to go talk to Alice to get her to talk to his leader to make it stop.""So Alice wasn't harassing Lua!" Sei said happily."I'm not even going to ask where you got that idea," Doyeon said, "but no, she wasn't.""But Lucy likes me!" Sei had a big smile on her face, which sudden vanished. "And she saw me kissing Haley."Sei fell quiet for a minute, then turned back to Doyeon and asked "But why didn't she ever say anything to me?""Why didn't you ever say anything to her?" Doyeon riposted."I didn't even know she was gay!""And she didn't know you would ever be interested in her." Doyeon took a deep breath and released it slowly. "Put yourself in Lucy's shoes for a second. Everyone in Weki Meki is her unnie. She doesn't let on, but she's constantly afraid of doing the wrong thing and looking stupid, or even worse, immature. Imagine how she would have felt if she'd told you she felt this way and you hadn't felt the same way about her."Sei thought for a minute, taking a sip of her tea. Finally, she looked up at Doyeon, a haunted look in her eyes. "What do I do now?"Doyeon looked at her unblinkingly. "You ever hear the saying 'you've made your bed, now you have to sleep in it'? That's where you are. If you're even thinking about breaking up with Lime to go after Lucy, get that idea right out of your head. First of all, Lime doesn't deserve that. I don't know her all that well, but from the time I've spent around her, I think she'd make a great girlfriend.""Second of all-" Doyeon was counting off points on her fingers - "if Lucy even suspects that you dumped Lime to be with her, you will have poisoned that relationship from the beginning.""Third-" the count went on - "this is real life, not a fanfiction. Despite what the Ki-Lings write about us, you can't have both.""And fourth and finally, you can't let on to Lucy that you know how she feels. She probably knows you know, but you've got to let her pretend that you don't. You've got to put yourself back in the mindset you were in before you came into the apartment tonight and hold on to that."Sei reached out to Doyeon for a hug. Doyeon wrapped her arms around her and stroked her hair. "You've gotten yourself into a touch position here, but it's nothing you can't handle. And who knows what the future holds? Tomorrow everything could be totally different!" She looked at the clock on the microwave. "And now we'd better get to bed. We've got a big day of promotions tomorrow."^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^The next week was one of the hardest Sei had ever been through - the days were okay, being packed full of promotions, and she could text with Haley, even if they were too busy to see each other, but the nights were difficult. She had to try to go to sleep each night to the sound of Lucy crying herself to sleep in the next bed over. She'd asked Doyeon if she could try to comfort Lucy, but Doyeon said no: Comforting Lucy would mean admitting that she knew how Lucy felt, which would mean forcing Lucy to admit that Sei knew how she felt. It seemed cruel to her, but Doyeon assured her it had to be this way.Other than the nightly crying, which was gradually lessening, the worst moment came during one of the radio promos. The interview had asked them "What's your ideal type?" - despite the fact that they'd all already answered this dozens of times, if this particular interview hadn't asked it, it didn't count. Anyway, everyone was going through pretty much their standard stock answers until it got to Lucy. She looked at Sei as she answered and said "It would have to be someone observant, someone who could figure things out without having to have them spelled out." Sei had never felt smaller - she wished she could crawl under the desk and hide.Christmas was getting closer. None of the girls in Weki Meki were going home to visit their families over the holiday, so instead they decorated their apartment. One night during dinner, Suyeon surprised everyone with an idea."How would it be," she said, "if we had a Christmas party and invited the members of Hellovenus?"Sei looked at Suyeon with a look of panic on her face: To have to negotiate a party, in their apartment (where things could happen that could never happen out in public), with both Lucy and Haley there? How was she ever going to manage that? If Suyeon noticed Sei's panic, though, she didn't respond to it. The others started talking about how much fun the party would be and trying to decide what kind of snacks they'd have. Rina asked if they could invite Elly's and Lua's significant others, so everyone could finally meet them. Elly said hers was out of town for Christmas. Lua just kept quiet until the subject was changed. By the time dinner was over, it was pretty obvious that the party was going to happen - the only ones who weren't enthusiastic about the idea were Sei and Lucy.Before bedtime that night, Suyeon had posted a list of party duties on the refrigerator. Sei's assignment was to go to the grocery store and buy the list of snacks Suyeon had made. And since it was too much stuff for her to carry by herself, Lucy was supposed to go with her. They both looked at each other and shrugged when they saw the assignment. They knew what Suyeon was trying to do, but they didn't know how it would work. This would be the first time they'd spent alone together since Sei and Haley's date. And they didn't have much time to get ready: The party was in three days.^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^Sei was lying in her bed, talking to Haley on KakaoTalk.SEI: I can't talk long. I've got to go party shopping with Lucy.HALEY: I like Lucy. We should hang out with her more."Yeah, if you only knew," Sei thought.SEI: Well, you'll get to see her at the party.HALEY: You'll get to meet one of my best friends at the party - Suyeon said I could bring her.SEI: Who? Is it someone I know? Or someone I would know of?HALEY: You'd know of her, but I won't tell you who it is. I want it to be a surprise!SEI: I don't know that I really like surprises. Too much can go wrong.HALEY: This will be a good surprise. I'm sure of it.Lucy poked her head in the door. "You ready to go shopping?""Just a second," Sei said. "I've got to sign out, then we can go."Lucy smiled at her. "OK! Just let me know when you're ready!"SEI: I've got to go now. Shopping time!HALEY: Have fun, and I'll see you Sunday!
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Suyeon was standing on a chair pinning garland to the wall up near the ceiling. Doyeon was standing on the floor next to her, handing up the pins - and also ready to catch her if she fell. As leader, it was Suyeon's prerogative to decide she would be the one to stand on the chair, but Doyeon wouldn't have chosen to put her up there. Doyeon had a hard enough time not causing disaster when she was standing on the floor, so Doyeon tensed herself with every wobble, ready to catch her leader, or at least lower her more gently to the floor."I wish I could invite Moonbin to the party," Suyeon said."You know we can't do that," Doyeon reminded her. "If we invite Moonbin, we have to invite all of Astro, and there are potential problems if MJ is here for the party.""I know why we can't do it," Suyeon said petulantly, "but it doesn't stop me from wishing things were different.""I know," Doyeon said, "and I've already promised you I'll help you get to spend some time with Moonbid during the holidays."Reaching the end of a piece of garland, Suyeon stepped down, sat down in the chair, and pulled Doyeon into her lap. "Are you sure this party is a good idea?"Doyeon shook her head. "No, but it's the idea we've got."Suyeon brushed a stray strand of Doyeon's hair out of her face. "Remind me again what's supposed to happen here."Doyeon looked around and, seeing that none of the other members were around, said "By forcing Sei, Lime, and Lucy to spend several hours in close proximity, I'm hoping that things will reach some sort of a resolution for the Lime-Sei-Lucy love triangle.""What kind of resolution?" Suyeon asked. "Because if you're looking for a huge fight, I think you'll get it.""I'm not hoping for that, but it is possible." Doyeon admitted. "I'm hoping either Lucy will see how happy Sei and Lime are together and step out of the triangle or else Lime will see how much Lucy loves Sei and how great they'd be together and steps away. Either way, I'm hoping we'll be able to reduce some of the tension around here."Doyeon stood up and handed Suyeon the end of the next piece of garland. Suyeon slid the chair a little further down the wall, climbed back up, and resumed hanging the garland."I just hope you're right," Suyeon said, "because if this goes wrong, I foresee it going wrong spectacularly.""Then we'll just have to try to see to it that it doesn't go wrong," Doyeon said."Do you think we should make Alice aware of the situation?" Suyeon asked. "Maybe she could help.Doyeon shook her head. "I'd considered that, but I think the fewer people know there is a plan, the less the chances that it'll slip out that there is a plan. The last thing we need is for one of the people in the triangle to figure out that there's an ulterior motive for this party. Especially Lime.""Why especially Lime?""Because she won't see it as just trying to resolve the situation. She'll automatically jump to the idea that we're trying to break her and Sei up so that we can get two of our members together." Doyeon handed Suyeon another piece of garland."Well, I hope it's a fun party anyway," Suyeon said with a shrug."Me too," Doyeon agreed, "If it's not a fun party, they're more likely to figure out what we're up to."^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^Sei rolled their half-full cart down the snack aisle at the grocery store. She reached up to grab a bag of shrimp chips."Oh, not those," Lucy said. She reached up and grabbed a bag from the shelf above the one Sei was reaching for. "Yoojung-unnie prefers this brand.""I couldn't have even reached that one," Sei said with a laugh. She looked up at Lucy. "And how do you know everyone's favorite snacks?"Lucy shrugged. "I look out for my unnies.""Apparently," Sei agreed. "And apparently if I'm ever trying to sneak and get away with something, you're the one who's likely to catch me."Lucy nodded. "If you want to know what's going on in any group, ask the maknae. They'll know everything that's going on." Lucy got a mysterious look in her eye. "Of course, whether or not they want to tell you is another matter entirely.""And what's going on in Weki Meki?" Sei asked."Well," Lucy said, moving down the aisle so they could get the next thing on their list. "Suyeon is planning to sneak and meet up with Moonbin tonight. Elly met up with her significant other when she and Rina went out to buy the decorations for that party. Lua's anxious to see her girlfriend, but apparently her girlfriend's schedule is preventing it. And Yoojung is having her period this week."Sei's jaw dropped. "How did you see all that?"Lucy counted off points on her fingers. "This is the first time in a week that Weki Meki and Astro have had a night off at the same time, hence Suyeon and Moonbin. Elly was texting furiously right before she and Rina left to go shopping, and she's been doing all kinds of little favors for Rina ever since they got back. Lua's frustration is so obvious I shouldn't even have to mention it, and we've had three evenings off in the last two weeks, so the problem must be with her girlfriend's schedule."Sei nodded, trying to take this all in. "And Yoojung?""Doyeon put tampons on the grocery list this week, but she's been swimming every day this week, and she never swims in the week before her period, so obviously the tampons are for Yoojung."Sei shook her head in amazement. "It all sounds so easy when you explain it, but I never would have figured all that out on my own."Lucy moved further down the aisle, toward the Pepero display. "Maknaes know what's going on," she said with a shrug. "It's our superpower."^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^That night after dinner they were getting ready to watch a movie, when Suyeon stood up, stretched, and said "You can watch the movie without me. I'm going to go for a walk."Sei looked at Lucy, who nodded significantly, then pointed with her eyes toward Rina. Elly was just bringing Rina a cup of tea. Lua was texting someone, obviously not in the best of moods. And Yoojung suddenly looked startled and rushed to the bathroom. Sei looked back at Lucy, her jaw dropped in amazement. Lucy smiled and nodded, then leaned back and got ready to watch the movie.There was a moment in the movie when the heroine's facial expression reminded Sei of the look on Lucy's face after she had seen Sei and Haley kissing. "It's too bad Lucy's superpowers only extend to the members of our group, or maybe she could have prevented this situation," Sei thought. Sei didn't enjoy the rest of the movie so much after thinking about that. She was very uncertain about her future with Haley or her status with Lucy and it was all very unsettling. She didn't regret that she was with Haley, except sometimes she did, and she wasn't spending every waking moment thinking about Lucy, just some of them. She'd always thought love triangles were stupid when she saw them in dramas, but now that she was in the middle of one, she understood why the heroines had such a difficult time just choosing. Suddenly, Sei had a feeling that she was being watched. She glanced up just in time to catch Lucy looking back at the screen. After that afternoon's demonstration, she had no doubt that her thoughts were as clear to Lucy as if they were written in the air above her head.
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Finally the night of the party arrived. There was a knock at the door and Rina opened it to admit the members of Hellovenus. Well, all of them but one."Where's Lime?" Sei asked.Alice laughed. "She'll be here. She just went to pick up her friend. She said it's a surprise for all of us."Sei was still nervous about the concept of surprises, and she wished Haley had arrived with the rest of the group. Sei had had a sense of foreboding all day, and if something was going to happen, she wanted to go ahead and get it over it.Sei chatted with Alice as Hellovenus's leader helped herself to the snacks. Looking over Alice's shoulder, she saw Lucy deep in conversation with Yeoreum - apparently the maknaes were exchanging secrets. Sei was pretty sure that by the time the night was over, both maknaes would know everything there was to know about both groups.Just then there was another knock at the door. Rina opened the door to admit Haley and-"Jennie?" Lua practically launched herself into the Blackpink member's arms from across the room. Everyone was curious to see how Jennie would react to this, and they were all surprised when she wrapped her arms around Lua and returned Lua's kisses with the same enthusiasm as Lua gave them.After several moments of this, Lua disentangled herself some Jennie and - keeping hold of Jennie's hand, turned around to face the others. "Everyone," she said, "I know you've all been dying of curiosity about my girlfriend, and I kept telling you I'd know when the time is right for you to learn about her. Well, apparently now the time is right. This is my girlfriend Jennie. We've been dating for almost 100 days - Christmas will be our 100 day anniversary."Jennie adjusted her grip on Lua's hand and waved at everyone. "Hi everyone. Lua's told me so much about you! I'm looking forward to getting to talk with all of you tonight."Sei looked at Haley and mouthed "Did you know?" Haley just shook her head and shrugged, apparently as taken aback as everyone else.^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^The party had been going for a couple of hours. People had divided up into little groups which shuffled around from time to time. Sei and Haley were sitting on the couch with Lua and Jennie. After repeated urging from Sei, Jennie was telling them about her experiences on the year-end celebration shows. Sei hoped to someday be on those shows, but Jennie's experience of being featured twice, once as a solo performer and once as a member of Blackpink, was something Sei had trouble even imagining.Just then Lucy came up to the couch, Yeoreum trailing behind her. "Excuse us, folks. We need to borrow Lime for a second."Haley got up, looked curiously at the maknaes, and said "I'll be back. Don't have all the fun without me!" Lucy led the little group out into the hallway and shut the door behind them.Jennie got a mischievous twinkle in her eye as she turned back to Sei. "So, Sei, are you nervous?" she asked.Sei looked up, startled. "Nervous? Why would I be nervous?""Oh, I don't know," Jennie said. "I think if my would-be girlfriend had just taken my current girlfriend out in the hall for a private conversation, I'd be nervous, if not straight up worried."Sei felt her mouth get dry. "You think they're talking about me?"Jennie shrugged. "Based on what Lua's told me, I can't think of anything else they'd be talking about."Just then the apartment door opened and Yeoreum came back in. She crossed the room to stand by Alice, joining Alice's conversation with Suyeon and Doyeon.Jennie's eyebrows went up and she whistled quietly. "The plot thickens," she said.They all looked over at the group that included both leaders. Everyone in the group was intermittently looking at Sei and at the door, while doing their best to not appear to be looking at either."And now we all wait," Lua said.After looking around nervously, wondering who was actually waiting and who was blissfully unaware of the drama that was apparently playing out here, Sei turned back to Lua and Jennie."So. . . how did you two even meet?""It was. . ." they both said at once. After laughing over their false start, Lua said, "You tell it - you tell it better than I do." She then leaned back against Jennie and waited for the story to begin."It was a Sunday afternoon - they were filming Inkigayo and I had gone to the studio to support my member Jisoo, who was one of the hosts. The filming hadn't started yet, so I'd gone out into the corridor while they did Jisoo's hair and makeup and got her dressed. And that's where I found this cutie-" she pinched Lua's cheek "- wandering the halls totally lost. She pretended not to recognize me, and asked if I could help her find the commissary so she could get a sandwich. She seemed so helpless that I walked with her all the way to the commissary and treated us both to sandwiches. We exchanged numbers, with the usual half-hearted promises to get in touch later, but then when I saw you all on stage and it felt like she was singing directly to me-""Because I was!" Lua interrupted."Hush!" Jennie said, tapping her on the nose. "I'm telling the story. Anyway, it felt like she was singing directly to me, and I knew I wanted to see her again. So I texted her that night, and we started texting back and forth, and seeing each other whenever we can - which hasn't been nearly enough. So when Haley invited me to a party in this part of town, I went along, hoping I could sneak away for part of the evening and go see Lua, and then it turned out to be your party, so I didn't even have to do that!"Lua sat up and looked at Jennie. "I actually was helpless when you found me, and I really didn't recognize you - I'd forgotten my glasses and I hadn't put my contacts in for the performance yet.""That reminds me!" Jennie said. "I haven't seen your new glasses yet!"After Lua scrambled off to take out her contacts and put on her glasses, Jennie turned back to Sei and said "She really is a sweetie - I feel so lucky to have found her. I-"Whatever she was about to say was cut off by the apartment door slamming open and Lucy and Lime storming into the room. They went up to the group containing the leaders, said something, then Lucy stormed off into her room while Lime stomped out of the apartment, each slamming the door behind her.Sei was totally stunned by this turn of events and just sat there, looking from one door to the other, trying to understand what she had just seen. Suddenly Alice yelled at her "Sei! Don't just sit there! Go to her!" Sei jumped up and ran. . .
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Sei jumped up, ran through the bedroom door, and shut it behind her. Giving her eyes a moment to adjust to the dim light, she realized that Lucy was standing by the ladder to her bed, watching the bedroom door. Sei struggled to make out her facial expression, but from what she could see, Lucy's face was an impassive mask."What are you doing here?" Lucy asked."I- You were upset, so I came to you.""Your girlfriend was upset too," Lucy said. "Why didn't you go to her?""I just. . ." Sei looked down, pausing for a moment to collect her thoughts. "Alice yelled to me 'Run! Go to her!' and. . . I just now realized she never specified who she meant by 'her', but apparently my mind had some ideas of who she should mean, because here I am." She looked up at Lucy. "I don't know what I'm supposed to say now, or what's supposed to happen. But as soon as you and I get done talking, however that works out, I'm going to go find Haley and break up with her. Because you're the first person I think about in the morning and the last person I think about at night, and she deserves someone who feels that way about her, and I'm not that person. I thought I was that person, because I thought you wanted to be with MJ, but I can't be that person, and now I know I don't want to." A single tear rolled down her cheek."Yeah," Lucy said, "after we're done here, you'd definitely better break up with her - I don't know her terribly well, but based on what I know, and on what Yeoreum has told me about her, she deserves better than to be someone's consolation prize."Sei winced. "Ouch. I guess I deserved that."Lucy nodded emphatically. "You deserve that and a lot more. It's a good thing we've got tomorrow off, because after the party, you and I have a lot of talking to do."Sei nodded."Now," Lucy said, "unless she's gotten bored and come back inside, you'll find Haley in the hallway outside our apartment, and then we've got to get back to our guests."^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^Twenty minutes later, Sei and Haley were walking back into the apartment from the hallway. If either of them had red eyes, their friends didn't let on that they'd noticed."So," Sei was saying, "I suppose you're my ex-girlfriend now, which is a new situation for me. Is it weird to still want to be friends with you?"Haley shook her head. "Not weird at all, and I'm glad you still want to be friends. But right now it looks like Alice and Doyeon are trying to get your attention.""I'd better go see what they want," Sei said. "I'll see you around." And she managed to find a smile for Haley.As Sei walked across the room to where Doyeon and Alice were talking, she looked around the room to see what everyone else was up to. Suyeon was talking to Lua and Jennie. Lucy, Rina, and Yeoreum were sitting on the floor playing a card game. Elly and Nara were having an intense discussion about something. Haley was crossing the room to join Yeoreum at the snack table."So how's it going?" Alice asked Sei.Sei thought for a moment. "Pretty good," she said. "I've had a couple of conversations tonight that I should have had a couple of weeks ago.""Yeah," Alice said, "I was just talking to one of your unnies about the dangers of playing secret agent with other peoples' hearts." Doyeon looked suitably chastised at this. "And if you ever find yourself in a situation like this again, feel free to ask me for advice, or any of your sunbaes - that's what we're here for."Sei nodded. "Thank you, Alice-sunbae." She paused a moment, looking down, then looked up and asked. "So. . . what do I do about Lucy?"Alice looked across the room to where Lucy had just won something in the card game and was waving her hands triumphantly over her head. "I think she'll be okay," she said, turning back to Sei. "You'll just need to give her a little time to admit that she's already forgiven you."Sei looked startled. "She has?"Alice nodded. "If she hadn't forgiven you, she wouldn't have gone through so much trouble to get you back."Sei looked even more startled. "Get me back? But. . . . we're not dating. She's not my girlfriend."Alice laughed. "Maybe not, but you're hers. And in the next few days she'll let you know exactly what that means."^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^Sei and Lucy agreed that the mornings after parties were the worst time to be the morning people in the group - they had to either tackle cleaning the apartment just the two of them, or else sit around in the previous night's mess until some of the others woke up to help them clean it. This particular morning cleaning won out over waiting - if they were busy enough, they couldn't talk. But eventually everything was clean and there was no way to avoid the fact that they needed to continue their conversation from the night before.Lucy sat down on the couch and gestured for Sei to come sit down beside her. Sei sat down, then turned to Lucy and smiled weakly. "I really screwed things up, didn't I?"Lucy nodded. "You really did. But not so bad that they can't be fixed."Sei's smile got a little bit stronger. "I'd like that," she said."Well, you're going to have to work at it," Lucy said, "and you've already demonstrated you're not that good at figuring situations out on your own. So I'm going to need a lot more communication from you. Like, really, really a lot."Sei nodded.Lucy's expression got even more serious. "I know I made things hard for you last night, but I needed to know you weren't going to bail as soon as things got hard."Sei nodded again. "I can understand that. I haven't really done too well so far."Lucy smiled at her. "You definitely could have done better.""I will. Believe me I will.""We'll see," Lucy said with a smile. "You can start by taking me out to breakfast."
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Sei and Lucy were sitting in a local cafeteria, waiting for their omelettes to be cooked, talking quietly."Of course," Sei said, "now the really hard part starts."Lucy looked up from the table. "What's that?""We've got to keep it a total secret that we're dating," Sei said. "We're still under the dating ban, and even once that ends it wouldn't be safe to come out as gay.""That's especially hard for me," Lucy said, "because I just want to, you know, shout to the whole world -" she dropped the volume of her voice so she was speaking even quieter - "that you're my girlfriend."Sei nodded. "But we can't." She paused for a moment. "We'll need to ask our unnies and our sunbaes for advice on how not to get caught.""Especially the sunbaes," Lucy said. "I don't trust the unnies to know much better than we do.""Well, yeah, they do mess up sometimes," Sei admitted, thinking of the bad advice Doyeon had given her, "but they mean well, and they haven't gotten caught yet, so that's got to count for something.""I think Elly's the best one at this. I mean, we don't even know who she's dating." Lucy said.They stopped talking as the waitress brought their egg rolls, then stayed quiet for a few minutes while they eat. By the time they were ready to talk again, Lucy had thought of something. "We won't be able to wear couples things, will we?" she asked.Sei shook her head. "Probably not," she said. She popped a piece of omelette in her mouth and chewed for a moment while she thought. "I'll text Alice-sunbae and see what she says.""She's probably still asleep," Lucy said, as she reached over and grabbed a piece of omelette off Sei's plate."Probably," Sei agreed. "But she'll see it when she wakes up, and I bet she's got some answers.""I hope so," Lucy said, pouting. "Winter is the best time for couples things - you can do gloves, caps, scarves, jackets. . ."To their surprise, Sei's phone beeped. She picked it up and started reading. "Apparently Alice isn't such a sleepyhead as our members - she said she'd been up for a couple of hours but didn't text because she didn't want to wake me up.""Let's see. . ." Sei said, reading on. "She says if I'm asking about couples things then she supposes congratulations are in order. She'd got 3 suggestions and I'm guessing you're not going to like two of them.""Well, let's see?" Lucy said, obviously dying of impatience."OK. One: We buy the items, but never both wear them at once."Lucy shook her head. "That's no good. Well, not very good. What else?""Two: Pajamas and underwear.""Pajamas could be fun, but only our members would get to see them.""True. OK, one option left: Small items, like keyrings and phone charms."Lucy's face lit up. "Keyrings! That's perfect!"Sei laughed. "I suppose it is at that.""Okay then," Lucy said. "When we finish breakfast, I'll go shopping for the keyrings, and I'll meet you back at the apartment.""I don't get a say in our keyrings?" Sei asked.Lucy looked at her and raised her eyebrows. "Really? Are you thinking? How weird would it look if you and I go shopping for keyrings together and then buy the same one. If I go out by myself and buy them, no one will think twice. Plus, I've got an idea of what keyrings I want."Sei nodded. "Makes sense. OK, I'm done eating. You?"Lucy stole one last bite of Sei's omelette. "Now I'm done. Meet you back at the apartment." She touched her hand to her mouth, then touched it to Sei's hand. Sei blushed."Have fun, and I can't wait to see what you pick out.""You'll like it," Lucy said with a laugh. They left the cafeteria and turned in opposite directions: Lucy toward the market and Sei toward the apartment. Sei looked back after about half a block. She spotted Lucy and considered waving, but since Lucy was facing away from her, she didn't. She really wanted to, though.^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^Sei got back to the apartment to discover that only Rina and Lua were awake. Lua was sitting on the couch, texting furiously. (Probably to Jennie, Sei now knew.) Rina was in the kitchen, just serving herself a bowl of instant noodles."Good morning!" Rina said.Sei looked at the kitchen clock. It was still barely morning. Laughing, she replied "Good morning!" and went to put on water for a cup of tea.While she waited for the water to boil, she sat down at the table with Rina and they chatted about the previous night's party."So. . ." Rina said as Sei poured hot water in her mug and stuck the tea bag in, "you and Lucy are a couple now?"Sei nodded, a big grin spreading over her face. "Yes! I can't believe it but yes! I've had a crush on her since training, and now we're a couple!"Rina looked at her. "You've had a crush on her since training?"Sei nodded enthusiastically."I never would have guessed."As Sei shrugged, Rina said "No, I'm just messing with you - we all knew you wanted Lucy and were wondering what was taking you so long.""Really?" Sei looked puzzled.Rina nodded. "Really."Sei sat back down, idly stirring her tea while waiting for it to steep. "I thought I hid it so well," she said, grinning shyly.Rina shook her head. "Oh no. We could all tell. That's why it confused us all when you started dating Lime."Sei shrugged. "At the time, I though Lucy was interested in MJ, so I figured why torture myself.""Speaking of Lime," Rina said. Suddenly she started blushing and covered her face with her hands. "I can't believe I'm about to ask this - and of you, of all people!" She peered out cautiously between her hands. "Do you think you could fix me up with Lime?""I can tell her you're interested and give her your number. Will that do?"Rina nodded, but whatever she was about to say was drowned out by the sound of Lucy coming into the apartment, singing happily."Sei! Close your eyes!" she called out.Sei did as Lucy instructed. She heard the clinking of keys being taken off a ring and put on another. "So apparently she decided to go with keyrings," Sei thought to herself."No peeking!" Lucy said. Sei squinched her eyes shut tighter and waited impatiently. She hard water running, then a few other sounds she couldn't quite identify, then Lucy said. "OK! You can look now!"Sei opened her eyes, blinked a couple of times to get used to the light again, and looked down at the table. Her keys were now on a keychain featuring Gutedama, the lazy egg, sitting in a teacup."I saw that and I knew it was perfect for us," Lucy explained, "because I love Gutedama and you love tea. Also, I found you this:"She picked something up from the counter and set it down in front of Sei. Sei looked down to see that her cup of tea was now in a mug featuring pictures of Gutedama on the side. "You can use this around the house," Lucy said. "And I've got dibs on smashing it if you break my heart.""I would never want to do that," Sei said, jumping up and giving Lucy a hug."That doesn't mean it might not happen anyway," Lucy said, looking down at Sei and stroking her hair. "You've got to be careful.""Well, I'll just leave you two here," Rina said, getting up and putting her bowl in the sink. On her way out of the room, she stopped. "Sei, don't forget about that text you were supposed to send for me.""No problem - I'll do it in just a minute," Sei responded.After Rina had left the room, Lucy quietly asked "What text?""Oh," Sei said, figuring it was okay to tell Lucy, "Rina wants me to fix her up with Haley."A smile spread across Lucy's face and she jumped up and down excitedly. "Really! They'd make such a cute couple!"Sei nodded. "So give me a minute so I can send some texts to try to make it happen.""Sounds good," Lucy said with a final squeeze before letting go of Sei, "I'm going to go see if I can wake up the rest of our members. We were supposed to go to the park this afternoon.""I'd forgotten about that!" Sei said, smiling mischievously. "I'd better make sure that Haley knows Rina will be at the park this afternoon."
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Sei pulled out her phone and opened KakaoTalk. She started a conversation with Haley.SEI: Haley! How's it going?HALEY: OK. What's up?SEI: We're all going to dinner at Mario's tonight. I think you might want to be there.HALEY: Oh. Why?SEI: You remember my member Rina?HALEY: Yeah. . .SEI: She likes you!HALEY: Really?SEI: YES!!!HALEY: But isn't she younger than you?SEI: Just by one year.HALEY: I don't know - I'd feel weird. I mean, you're almost an adult, but she'd be a year away.SEI: So? Lucy's even younger than Rina.HALEY: No way! I thought Rina was the maknae.SEI: No. Rina's about a year older than Lucy.HALEY: I'll think about it. I just feel weird, you know?SEI: Don't feel weird. She likes you.HALEY: I'll think about it.SEI: OK. If you come tonight, we've reserved our dining room starting at 7. You remember where Mario's is?HALEY: Sure - I lived in that dorm until a couple of years ago, so I know the neighborhood.SEI: I hope we see you!HALEY: I've got to go - I need to think about things.SEI: OK. Bye!"That was an awful lot of typing," Lucy said. "What did Haley have to say?"Sei closed KakaoTalk and put her phone down on the table. "She doesn't know. She thinks Rina might be too young for her."Lucy's eyes flashed with indignation. "But! But Rina's only a year younger than you!"Sei nodded. "I know. I told her that. It worries her than Rina's still a year away from being an adult."Lucy's face grew suddenly serious. "Are you worried about me? I'm still two years away from being an adult."Sei shook her head. "No, I'm not worried about it. But I'm younger than Haley. I'm only two years older than you are, but she's seven years older than me.""Which means she's eight years older than Rina," Lucy said. "So, what, seven years is okay but eight is just over some imaginary line?"Sei could tell that Lucy was getting upset by this. "It's all because of the stupid age of majority," Sei said. "I don't think it's a problem, you don't think it's a problem, obviously Rina doesn't think it's a problem, but if Haley thinks it's a problem, then it's a problem for her."Elly happened to walk in at this time. "What's a problem for Haley?""Stupid age gap," Lucy said, sulking.Seeing the confused look on Elly's face, Sei elaborated. "Haley apparently didn't have a problem with dating me, because I'm almost an adult, but apparently Rina being a year younger than me is a deal-breaker.""And why should Rina's age matter at all?" Elly asked, no less confused than before.Sei went on. "Because Rina asked me to try to fix her up with Haley, and when I talked to Haley, she kind of freaked out and I don't know if she's coming to the park this afternoon or not. . ."Elly nodded. "I understand this. Let me talk to Alice, then maybe to Haley. I've got some experience that might make a difference here."And with that, Elly went to the big bedroom and shut the door behind her."I wonder what experience Elly has that could make a difference in this," Lucy said. Sei just shrugged.^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^Sei and Lucy went to Mario's ahead of the rest of the members - the others could be a little late, but Sei and Lucy wanted to be there at 7 in case Haley showed up."Do you think she's going to come?" Lucy asked as they settled in with some pop and garlic bread to pass the time.Sei shrugged. "I don't know," she said. "We don't know what's going through her head, we don't know what Elly told her, we pretty much don't know anything."Lucy looked at her keys sitting on the table in front of her. She absent-mindedly reached out and rubbed her "couple's key-ring" between her finger and thumb. "I hope Haley decides she want to go out with Rina - Rina would be so sad if it doesn't work out, and I know what it's like to want to be with someone and not be able to.""Oh, yeah, and I know absolutely nothing about that!" Sei responded with a sarcastic roll of her eyes."Well, yeah, you know," Lucy said, "but I think it's harder when you're younger.""Maybe so," Sei said. "I'm just glad I've got you now.""Me too!" Lucy said. "I just wish we didn't have to hide.""It could be worse," Sei said. "Imagine if we were in different groups: Our schedules would be different, we'd probably live in different dorms, and every time we were seen together in public we'd be being watched by members of both groups."Lucy nodded and took a bite of garlic bread. "Yeah, you're right. With all the odds against them, what's surprising isn't that some people get caught dating, but that most people don't."Sei nodded. "Yeah, they should be recruiting idols to be spies. I mean, look at Elly - she's been dating her person since our first promo and we have no idea who it is."Just then the dining room door opened and Haley came in. "Hey guys! How's it going?""Good!" Lucy said. "The rest of our members should be here soon.""Did you settle on a couple's item?" Haley asked."We did!" Sei said. "Lucy picked them out." She handed her keys to Haley."Oh! Gudetama! That's cute!" Haley handed the keys back."Did you think any more about what we talked about this morning?" Sei asked.Haley nodded solemnly. "I did, but I haven't reached any decisions yet.""Maybe you'll have some ideas after hanging with Rina tonight," Lucy said."Maybe," Haley agreed. "I'm just feeling kind of odd about it, you know?"Sei and Lucy nodded their agreement. "I think-" Sei began, but whatever she thought was cut off by Lua rushing into the room."We need to take the pizza back to the dorm," she said. "Suyeon needs our help and she's in no shape to come out right now."'What's wrong?" Sei and Lucy asked in unison."This," Lua said. She called up a news story on her phone and held it out to them. "Moonbin and Momo: We're Dating!" read the headline."But. . ." Sei protested, "Suyeon doesn't believe this, does she?""She didn't," Lua said, "until she called Moonbin and he confirmed it. Apparently he and Momo have been dating since summer, but he didn't want to break things off with Suyeon so he was dating both of them.""What a slimeball!" Lucy exclaimed.Haley stood up. "It sounds like you've got a group problem here," she said. "I'd better get out of your way." Sei and Lucy tried to convince her to come back to the apartment with them, but Haley was adamant that she had to go. "I'm really not the right one to handle this sort of situation," she said, "and besides, Suyeon's not really going to want to have an outsider around while she's going through this." She put her jacket on and was tying her scarf. "If you need a sunbae to help out with this, just give me a call and I'll send Alice or Nara over."By this time Lua had gotten the pizzas packed to go, so as soon as Sei and Lucy got their jackets on, they headed back home."I didn't want to say in front of Lime, but being upset isn't the only reason Suyeon can't come out tonight," Sei said. Upon receiving inquisitive looks from Sei and Lucy, she went on. "Apparently Suyeon had a bottle of soju stashed in the apartment and she drank it. We're having to keep phones away from her to keep her from calling Moonbin and begging him to come back or calling Momo and bitching her out.""Oh boy," Sei said. "I bet a depressed, drunk Suyeon is just the most fun thing ever.""You've got no idea," Lua said. "She pulled Elly's hair trying to get her phone away from her and she knocked Rina down trying to get her phone. She was crying loud enough I'm surprised nobody heard and called Manager-nim. Doyeon and Yoojung were keeping her quiet in the small room when I left." By this time they had reached their apartment. Lua unlocked the door and then stopped with her hand on the doorknob. "Brace yourself - we've got no idea what we're about to walk into."
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"One bottle of soju," Sei said. "She can't be that drunk, can she?"Lua shook her head. "It was one of the big bottles, undiluted. She's totally wasted.""Oh great. Well, we'd better get in there." Sei opened the door, unsure what to expect.Rina met them at the door. "Thank God you're here!" she said, then called out toward the back of the apartment "The cavalry is here!"Doyeon's voice came drifting up: "Send them to the bathroom."Sei nodded, and patted Rina on the arm as she headed to the bathroom, Lucy following in her wake. When they got there, they saw Suyeon kneeling on the floor in front of the toilet, Doyeon holding her hair back as she heaved and retched."I think she threw it all up," Doyeon said, "but her stomach hasn't gotten the message yet."Lucy took Suyeon's hair as Sei knelt down by Suyeon. "We've got this for a while," Sei said. "Why don't you go get something to eat, if you've still got an appetite after this."Doyeon nodded. "At the very least, I want to be in another room right now."Sei reached out and tucked a stray strand of Suyeon's hair behind her ear. Suyeon looked over at her, her eyes filled with tears."I loved him," Suyeon said. "I really loved him, and then he did this. And Momo? Really, Momo? She could have any guy she wants and she decides she wants Moonbin? Why? He was my boyfriend! Mine!"Sei wrapped her arms around Suyeon, making comforting noises as she cradled Suyeon's head on her shoulder. "It's going to be okay. Momo probably doesn't even know about you and Moonbin. It's obvious the newspapers didn't know or you'd have been in the headline - a love triangle is a bigger scandal than a simple dating expose."Suyeon nodded, resting her head more heavily on Sei's shoulder."Hey, you're getting pretty sleepy," Sei said. "You done throwing up?""All done," Suyeon said in a surprising cheerful voice.Sei looked up at Lucy. "Get me her toothbrush and toothpaste. I'm going to get that taste out of her mouth, then put her to bed."Lucy let go of Suyeon's hair and went to find the requested items. She came back with the toothbrush preloaded with paste, and helped hold Suyeon steady while Sei brushed her teeth. Then she got a cup of water so Suyeon could rinse her mouth, then Sei sent her back for another cup of water and made Suyeon drink it."She's still going to feel like crap in the morning, but that will at least make things a little better."They got Suyeon to her feet and then, each supporting her by one arm, walked her to her bed. As Lucy was getting Suyeon arranged and covered up, Sei went back to the bedroom and called out "There aren't any phones in the small bedroom, are there?""No," Yoojung said. "Except for yours and Lucy's we've got everyone's phones in the freezer, including Suyeon's.""The freezer?" Lucy asked, coming up behind Sei."Yeah," Elly said, "even if we're all asleep and she gets up, she's not going to look in the freezer for a phone. Speaking of which, give me yours."They handed their phones to Elly as they entered the kitchen. Lucy crossed over to the sink and started washing her hands, but Sei looked down at herself and said "I've got to go change my shirt. Be right back."^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^When Sei get back from changing her shirt, having stopped by the small bedroom to check on Suyeon on the way, she found that the others had already opened the pizzas and were eating. What was to have been a party had turned into a council of war, but warriors need nutrition just as much as partiers."So what's going on?" Sei asked, helping herself to a slice of veggie delight pizza."Well," Doyeon said, "we've managed to protect Suyeon from herself for tonight. Now we've got to figure out what to do going forward.""I think it's obvious what we've got to do," Elly said. When it became apparently that it in fact wasn't obvious to everyone else, she went on "We've got to get a message to Momo, letting her know that she's not the only one who Moonbin was dating.""Assuming she didn't already know," Rina said."I've met Momo," Yoojung said, "We sang together at the 2016 KBS. I don't believe she would deliberately do something like this to someone.""So," Doyeon said, looking around the room, "does anyone have the phone number of anyone in Twice?" But nobody did."Wait a second," Lua said. "I don't have anyone's number, but I know someone who does." She got her phone out of the freezer and made a call. The others sat quietly and listened."Jennie! Hi! How you doin' babe?" Lua listened intently, smiling at whatever Jennie was saying. "Yeah, it's great to talk to you too, but I can't really talk right now - I've got all my members sitting her listening to me. . . Uh huh. . . You've heard the news about Momo and Moonbin? . . . Of course you have. Anyway, are you still friends with Nayeon? Argh, this is so awkward. Can you ask Nayeon to have Momo call Yoojung? Do you have her number? . . . Good. No, I can't tell you what it's about, it's just important that Momo call Yoojung as soon as possible. . . . Thanks babe. I'll talk to you later, 'kay?" She ended the call with a "Love you!" and a kiss, then put her phone back in the freezer, behind the mochi. She dug out Yoojung's phone and handed it to her."And now we wait," Yoojung said, putting the phone down on the table in front of her.^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^As it turned out, they didn't have to wait long - inside of five minutes, Yoojung's phone was ringing. Her "I Don't Like Your Girlfriend" ringtone had never seemed more appropriate. She took a deep breath and steeled herself, then picked up the phone."Hello? Hi Momo - thanks for calling me so quickly. . . Yeah, I'm doing fine. Look, I'm sure you're really busy tonight, so I'll try to make this as quick as I can. I've heard the rumors about you and Moonbin, he's told one of my members that they're true, and either way there's something you need to know. . ."And in a matter of minutes Yoojung had brought Momo up to date on what Moonbin had been doing. The others couldn't tell what Momo was saying, but they could hear her well enough to know that she was mad."Okay, yeah. . . yeah, that sounds like a good idea. . . Okay. I'll let you go so you can take care of this. Let's keep in touch. Bye!"Yoojung put her phone down on the table and looked around the room. "It looks like things are taken care of. Momo's about to deny the rumors to her agency and to the press, then she's going to call Moonbin and let him know that if he knows what's good for him, he'll lose her number and deny the rumors."A smattering of cheers and high-fives met this news."Suyeon's not going to take him back, is she?" Rina asked.Elly shook her head. "I don't think so. Especially not after we have a talk with her tomorrow morning, catch her up on all the excitement that she missed."Lucy put her arm around Sei. "First MJ. now Moonbin. I'm so glad that I'm gay - guys are the worst!""Not all guys," Elly said. "There are, believe it or not, good men out there."Doyeon narrowed her eyes as she looked at Elly. "Can we take this as an indication that your special someone is a guy?"Elly shrugged. "Take it however you like. When the time is right, you'll find out who my special someone is. That's all I'm gonna say."Having until recently been someone with a secret significant other, Lua knew that Elly would want attention directed off of her. "Okay everyone," she said, "we'd better get to bed so there's no chance of Suyeon waking up first.""Good idea," Sei said. "The last thing we need is to wake up tomorrow and discover that a hung-over, headache-y Suyeon has torn the apartment apart trying to find a phone."^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^Sei was lying in bed, thinking over the evening's events, when she felt Lucy reach across the gap between the beds and grab her hand. She rolled over and looked over the guardrail at Lucy. "What's up?""I just thinking about Suyeon," Lucy said. "I feel really bad for her.""She'll be fine," Sei said. "She'll be miserable for a while, but then she'll start to feel better and one day this evening will be just a bad memory.""If she can remember it all!" Lucy said.Sei chuckled. "Yeah, she was pretty wasted.""But. . . I just . . ."Sei squeezed Lucy's hand. "You're thinking about us, aren't you? Don't worry - I would never do that to you.""But what about," Lucy asked, "what about Lime?""That was different," Sei said. "I thought you were about to start dating MJ, she was interested in me, and I was trying to take my mind off of you.""Well, don't ever do something like that again, OK?""I never would," Sei said, kissing Lucy's hand.^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^The next morning, Sei and Lucy were on the couch cuddling when Suyeon came out of the small bedroom."Good morning!" they said as one.Suyeon scowled and rubbed the side of her head. "Not so loud!" She brushed her hair back away from her face and blinked at them. "I had a dream that you brushed my teeth.""That wasn't a dream," Sei said, "and you'd better do something extra nice for Doyeon - she stayed in the bathroom and held your hair out of the toilet while you puked."Suyeon ran her hand over her face. "And I remember trying to grab Elly's phone? And Rina's?"Sei nodded. "That happened too."Suyeon flopped down on the couch next to Sei. "Anything else happen that I should be aware of?"Lucy held out her phone so Suyeon could see the headline on her screen. "JYP, Fantagio deny Moonbin/Momo rumors."Suyeon blinked at the screen several times, as if trying to make sure it said what she thought it said. Finally, she just asked: "What? How?""Because your members look out for you," Sei said. Suyeon still looked confused, so she went on. "Lua called Jennie, to ask her to call Nayeon to ask her to have Momo call Yoojung. When Momo called, Yoojung told her about you - she'd been totally unaware - and Momo said she was going to deny the rumors to her label and the press, then call Moonbin to tell him that he'd better deny the rumors to his agency and to anyone else who would list, and by the way, she was breaking up with him.""So in the space of a few hours he went from two girlfriends to none," Lucy said, "and if you even think about getting back together with him, your members will have a thing or two to say about that." Lucy stood up and loomed over Suyeon. "If you had let your members help you yesterday, rather than sneaking off and getting drunks, yesterday would have been a whole lot better and we could have helped you fix the situation and you wouldn't have a headache right now and-""Lucy," Doyeon interrupted as she came into the room, "is this how we treat our unnies?""Sorry, Suyeon-unnie," Lucy said, sitting back down by Sei again. Sei took her hand and rubbed it calmingly."She's right, though," Doyeon said as she sat down next to Suyeon. "As it was, dealing with the problem took us longer than it needed to, because first we had to deal with you."Just then the apartment door opened and Elly came in."Good morning," Elly said, smiling brightly at them."You're in a particularly good mood," Suyeon said, rubbing her head."I got to go out for breakfast with my special someone this morning!" Elly said, smiling."Speaking of which, you should have some breakfast, unnie," Lucy said."And some water and a Tylenol," Sei chimed in.Suyeon shook her head as she got up and headed to the kitchen. "I'm so lucky to have such great members."Meanwhile, back in the living room, Doyeon, Sei, and Lucy were peppering Elly with questions about her special someone, to no avail.
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Another day, another round of promos. Two fansigns, a performance at a school, and an appearance on TV. When they got back to the dorm, they were all exhausted. Suyeon went to bed right away - she was still dealing with the shock of what Moonbin had done, and despite everyone's efforts to try to get her to talk, all she wanted to do was work and sleep. Soojung and Doyeon had turned on the TV and were trying to find something to watch - normally they'd have gone to the small bedroom to hang out, but since Suyeon was in there trying to sleep, they had to hang out in either the kitchen or the living room until they were ready to sleep. Sei and Lucy were in the kitchen, making tea. Lua and Ellie were sitting by the window, where the cell reception was best, texting their significant others. Except for Suyeon, who was asleep, Rina was the only one not involved with couples activities. Sighing resignedly, Rina got dressed for bed. She grabbed her phone from the side table where she'd dropped it and went to lie down in her bed."Looks like another exciting night of video gaming for me," she said to herself as she flopped down and tried to beat her pillows into shape. She turned on her phone, picked a game and started playing. When that game failed to excite her, she switched to another one, then another one, then . . . in ten minutes she'd gone through half a dozen games, all without finding anything she wanted to play. Finally she tossed the phone down in the bed next to her, pulled her blanket up to her ears, and rolled over toward the wall.She could feel sleep hovering just out of range. She could also feel a prickling behind her eyes, as if she might start crying any moment but the tears just wouldn't come. She knew what was wrong - couples. She also didn't know what to do about it. No, that wasn't right. She knew what to do about it - get herself into a couple - but she wasn't sure exactly how. Or with who. It had been almost a week since she'd asked Sei to try to set her up with Lime; she hadn't heard anything, but maybe that just meant Lime had been busy, not that she wasn't interested. Didn't it? The fact of the matter was, Rina wasn't even sure what sort of person she should look for - she liked girls, but she liked boys too. Maybe if she could find a boyish girl? Or a girlish boy? She just wasn't sure.She started imagining different people, seeing who turned her on and who didn't. After a while of this, without her consciously deciding to, she realized she was touching herself while imaging her potential person. It felt good, though, so she kept on. And as she kept on, she realized that her thoughts kept coming back to one person: Twice's Jeongyeon. "That's just silly," she thought to herself as her hand continued its wayward exploration. "I've never even met Jeongyeon. I don't even know if she likes girls! She might be totally straight!"Just then Rina heard the door open. She froze and listened, trying to figure out who it was."Oh look," she heard Lua say. "Rina's already asleep. I'll just be quiet so I don't wake her up."It was Lua. Because of course it was Lua. Elly always fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow, and Lucy and Sei were up in the top bunks and couldn't see her anyway. But Lua would come to bed and just lie there, reading or texting or whatever for sometimes an hour. That was the problem with sharing a two-bedroom apartment with seven other girls - privacy just wasn't a thing, so if you wanted to take care of yourself, you'd better get cool with doing it while your roommates were asleep in the same room. But doing it while Lua was next to her awake was just too far for Rina. She just couldn't bring herself to do it. Even if she did think she could be still and quiet enough that Lua wouldn't figure out what she was doing, she just couldn't do it with Lua right there, awake and able to see her. Rina silently pulled her hands out of her pajamas, rolled further toward the wall, and tried to go to sleep.^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^Rina must have been tireder than she thought, because she couldn't remember being awake for very long after Lua came to bed. She did remember a couple of dreams, though. She couldn't remember all of any of them, but she was quite sure that all of them involved Jeongyeon. She felt even more frustrated than she had before she went to bed, if such a thing was possible. Looking around, she realized all of her roommates were still asleep. Moving silently, she grabbed her clothes for the day and headed for the shower.After some time in the shower, she felt much calmer and headed to the kitchen for breakfast. She served herself a bowl of rice from the rice cooker, sprinkled furikake on top, and sat down by the window so she could look outside while she ate. Some of the apartments on the higher floors had balconies, but Weki Meki weren't senior enough to get one of those apartments yet. Rina couldn't wait until they could, though - she was looking forward to being able to go outside without having to go down three flights of stairs.As she stared out the window and ate her rice, she found herself daydreaming about Jeongyeon. She started trying to figure out how she could meet her. ISAC was coming up soon, and that was usually a good place to meet people. On the other hand, you never could predict who you'd meet at ISAC: Depending on what events the two of you were in, you might never even see the person you wanted to meet. You could sometimes meet people in the waiting rooms at music shows, but, again, you couldn't predict who you'd meet. It depended on who was promoting a song at the same time you were and who was on the show the same night you were. And Fantagio always tried to schedule Weki Meki's comebacks at different times from Twice's comebacks - no agency wanted one of their groups competing head to head with Twice or Blackpink. So that wasn't a reliable way to meet her. Which left telephone and social media. Rina supposed she could stalk Jeongyeon's Insta until Jeongyeon decided to DM her. But that might never happen - Jeongyeon might even think she was fan pretending to be Rina! Which left telephone. Rina didn't have Jeongyeon's number, but she had the next to the next best thing: She had a member who had the phone number of one of Jeongyeon's members! Rina looked over at the small bedroom door, wishing Yoojung-unnie would wake up!^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^A couple of hours later, Weki Meki were walking to their practice room for dance practice. Rina managed to shuffle around in the group so that she ended up walking next Yoojung."Yoojung-unnie. . ." Rina began."What do you want Rina?" Yoojung asked."Who said I want something?" said Rina, trying to look hurt and almost succeeding.Yoojung laughed. "Because you maknaes never call us 'unnie' unless you want something. So. . . what do you want?"Rina laughed. "You caught me! Well, I was wondering when you were going to call Momo again.""Probably not until Monday or Tuesday," Yoojung said. "Thursday through Sunday are always extra-busy for all of us." She paused and looked at Rina for a moment. "You do remember that Momo's straight, don't you?"Rina nodded. "It's just she's the only member of Twice that someone I know really well knows, so I'm hoping. . ." Rina stopped, unsure how to say this."You want to know if Momo and I will fix you up with someone.""Well, not like that, unnie," Rina said, pouting. "I was just hoping you could arrange an introduction and then the rest would be up to me."Yoojung nodded. "And who would we be introducing you to?""Jyeongyeon," Rina said, a faraway, dreamy look on her face.Yoojung laughed. "You and about 3/4 of the guys in Korea!" Doing her best to put on a serious expression, she continued. "I can't promise anything. I don't know if she's straight or not. I don't know if she's already dating somebody. I don't know if you're her type. But, even with all the things I don't know, I'll try to get you an introduction to Jyeonyeon.""Thank you unnie!" Rina picked Yoojung up in a hug and spun around with her.^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^It was a good thing they were reviewing old choreography, because Elly's mind wasn't really on her dancing. Instead, she was dancing on autopilot while she tried to figure out a problem. Ordinarily she'd sit down and talk with one of her members about a problem like this, but this time the members were the problem. Or what she was afraid they might think or do, at any rate.Elly knew that the time was coming when there'd be no other choice - she'd had to introduce her boyfriend to her members. And she wanted to introduce him to her members - she was proud of him and wanted to show him off (to the very limited extent that someone under a dating ban could show off their boyfriend). But there was, first of all, the fact that most of her members were gay, and some of them somewhat hostile to males - and even the one that she knew for sure was straight didn't think well of guys, thanks to Moonbin. Then, to really complicate things, there was the fact that her boyfriend was older than her. Like, quite a bit older. Okay, seventeen years older, if you want to be all precise and into numbers. Which Elly wasn't - didn't want to be. She knew that if they ever got found out about the two of them, the age gap would be the biggest part of the scandal.But Elly didn't care about that. She cared that he was sweet, and he was kind to her. He always wore the bracelet she gave him - not so much because he liked the bracelet as because he knew she liked to see it on him. When they walked down the street together, he made her feel protected, like nothing and no one could bother her. But how could she get them to see that? They'd look at him and see his age and they'd judge him based on that before they got to know him.Or maybe not, she thought hopefully. Maybe she could prepare them well enough that they wouldn't be surprised by his age, that it'd be just as much of a non-issue for them as it was for Elly. (She knew it was an issue for him sometimes, though: He'd ask her why she wanted to date an old man like him, or he'd start talking about something that happened earlier in his career, then stop suddenly once he realized that the events he was talking about had taken place before she started elementary school. She'd do her best to reassure him, and soon he'd be his usual self again, but she could tell he never felt entirely confident that she wouldn't one day decide to leave him for someone closer to her own age.)But at any rate, whatever she was going to do, she was going to have to do it quickly. Her members were getting more and more impatient to meet her boyfriend (Doyeon had taken Elly's defense of men as a definitive clue, and the others had followed her lead).Finally, Elly decided she'd had it with playing things safe. During one of their breaks, she texted him a couple of questions. By the end of dance practice, she had his answers. So after dance practice, as they were walking down the hall to the conference room where they had to sign a couple of hundred albums, she said "We're having dinner tonight at Lee's American Diner, my treat. There's someone I want you to meet." They were in the middle of their agency's offices, so they couldn't ask her a million questions like she could tell they wanted to. She could practically feel their curiosity getting more and more intense. She hoped that this would work in her favor.
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The members of Weki Meki were sitting in an unused conference room, signing CD booklets. They'd been at it for an hour already, and the stacks of booklets left to go didn't seem to be getting any smaller. Elly stopped signing for a moment to rub her hand where it was starting to cramp up. A lull fell over the conversation and Elly decided it was time to start laying the groundwork for tonight's dinner. She put a thoughtful, somewhat confused expression on her face, and asked "So. . . kind of related to the 'what's your ideal type?' question that interviewers always ask us, what do you think of the half your age plus seven rule?""The what?" Lucy asked. Looking around for support, she added "Am I the only one who doesn't know what she's talking about?""Apparently so!" Doyeon said with a laugh.Suyeon volunteered to explain the rule to Lucy, "The rule is that the youngest person you're allowed to date is someone half your age plus seven."Lucy still looked confused - math had never been her strong suit. "I don't get it."Suyeon pressed bravely on. "Suppose you were thirty. Half of thirty is fifteen, plus seven is twenty-two. So if you're 30 years old, the youngest person you should be dating is someone who's 22.""So. . ." Lucy paused for a second, mentally scrolling through her mental stores of K-drama trivia, "sort of like Yoo Seung Ho and Park Min Young in Remember?"Rina scowled at her. "Why did you have to bring up that show as your example? I still get sad thinking about the ending of it!"Elly saw a chance to steer things in her favor. "What about Ji Sung and Lee Hyeri in Entertainer? I thought they made a cute couple!" And as if happened, they had an age gap almost exactly the same as hers with her boyfriend."But he was so old!" Rina exclaimed."Well, he was," Doyeon said, looking slyly at Elly, "but he was handsome, and kind, and seemed to really care for her."Yoojung looked up from the booklet she was signing. "He could manage my career any day!" she said with a laugh. She and Doyeon exchanged high-fives over this.Except for Rina - whose resistance was perhaps to be expected, given her age - the group seemed to be in agreement that Ji Sung and Lee Hyeri made a good couple. The conversation then veered off into other drama couples, and whose relationship worked and who they just could never believe they'd be together. Elly knew she couldn't get the conversation back to age gaps without seeming suspicious, but she hoped that she'd planted some ideas. At the very least, from the looks Doyeon was giving her, she knew that at least one of her members was figuring things out.^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^When they got to Lee's American, the hostess recognized Elly right away and led the group to the upstairs private dining room. Elly went in first, and was pleased to see that he was already there. She quickly crossed the room to him and exchanged a quick hug before turning back to face her members. "Everyone," she said, her heart in her throat, "I'd like you to meet--"At this point Lucy had just entered the room and was unable to stop herself from bursting out. "K.Will-oppa?" Sidestepping her other members, she moved to the front of the group and stood in front of him. "It's an honor to meet you!" she exclaimed, bowing deeply. She turned to Elly: "Are we going to sing a duet with K.Will-oppa?" She turned back to K.Will: "Are you going to write a song for us?"Finally Doyeon and Suyeon were able to grab Lucy by the arms and pull her back into the group. "Just let Elly-unnie talk," Sei whispered in her ear.Elly laughed - Lucy's impetuousness had certainly broken the ice. "As Lucy has correctly identified, this is K.Will. I dont know if we're ever going to sing a duet for him or have him write a song for us - that's between our agency and his. No, I brought K.Will here to meet all of you because he's--""He's your boyrfriend!" Lucy burst out, earning an elbow in the ribs from Doyeon."Yes, Lucy," Elly said with a laugh. "He's my boyfriend." Elly began introducing K.Will to all her members, starting with Suyeon. By the time she got to Lucy, apparently Doyeon had been saying something to her, because Lucy bowed and said "I'm sorry, Elly-unnie. I hope I didn't spoil your surprise."Before Elly had a chance to respond, K.Will said "I think Elly will agree with me that your excitement only made the day better. I'm very happy to finally meet you." He turned slightly, to include all the members in his gaze. "To finally meet all of you. Elly's told me so much about you."Just then the waitress came in with a stack of menus. She looked to K.Will to see where to seat everyone at the big round table. K.Will made sure Elly was sitting next to him on one side and Lucy on the other. He made sure Sei was sitting on Lucy's other side, and made sure to seat Yoojung and Doyeon next to each other - Elly was pleased to see that he'd obviously been paying attention to and remembering all things she told him about her members.Lucy grabbed the pitcher of water from the center of the table and turned to K.Will. "May I pour you a drink, K.Will-oppa?" He graciously accepted, and Lucy put the pitcher back. She was doing a good job of acting calm, but anyone who knew her could look in her eyes and see how excited she was. There were very, very few people in the world of K-pop who still qualified as "celebrities" in Lucy's eyes, but K.Will was definitely one of them.As the evening progressed, Elly was pleased to see that it went well. They passed through all the obligatory milestones of introducing a new boyfriend to one's friends: The telling of the "how we met" story, the obligatory question and answer session, and then everyone gradually starting to get comfortable, getting used to the idea of him being part of their social circle."I can see now why you kept him a secret," Suyeon said. "If word got out that you two are dating, the scandal would be huge."K.Will nodded. "After seeing what a big deal was made over the age difference between Hyuna and E'Dawn, it's obvious Korea's not ready for us yet. It would probably end both of our careers." He reached out and took Elly's hand. "So that is why Elly has kept me a secret from you until now, and why I must ask all of you for your help in continuing to keep this secret." After everyone had assured him that of course they would, Elly was visibly calmer, and her being calm seemed to help relax K.Will, who insisted that after they had all finished eating, they stay and sing karaoke for a while.Toward the end of the evening, Lucy sat down by K.Will and asked "Oppa, do you think we could-" and then leaned over and whispered the rest in his ear as he smiled and nodded."We can do that," he said, "but then you've got to-" and he leaned over and whispered the rest in her ear. Her eyes got huge."Really?" she asked. "You want me to do that? I. . . I don't know what to say. Thank you! I'd be honored!"When it was their turn to sing, K.Will went to the controls of the machine and programmed two songs to play back-to-back. "Lucy and I have arranged a surprise for you. First, at her suggestion, she and I will sing a duet, then at my request, she will sing a song for you by herself."K.Will and Lucy moved to the front of the room and stood back to back, each facing their girlfriend. The music began and they both started singing, their voices harmonizing sweetly: "Wise men say, only fools rush in, but I can't help, falling in love with you."Once the classic Elvis song ended, K.Will took a seat next to Elly and waited with everyone else for the next song to begin. Even before Lucy got to the first line ("Goyohan nae bange, nuga deureowassnayo"), Elly recognized K.Will's new single "My Star." She leaned over to him and asked "You asked her to sing this?" He nodded. "She's got a good voice. Plus, I thought it would thrill her." "Well, you're absolutely right," Elly said, grabbing his arm and leaning her head on his shoulder, "She'll be talking about this for weeks." She fell silent as Lucy began to sing. At the end of the song, everyone cheered and applauded, K.Will the most enthusiastically of all.^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^When Weki Meki's curfew was drawing near, he had the waitress order a pair of taxis to take them back to the dorm. "I wish I could walk you back myself," he said to Elly, "but at least I can do this."She looked around to be sure none of her members were looking at them, then leaned forward and kissed him quickly. "We could have just walked home, you know," she said.He nodded. "I know. But if something had happened to you - any of you - on the way, I never would forgive myself for not preventing it. I can't always protect you, so please, let me protect you when I can." Elly hugged him tightly, and he wrapped his arms around her.When the waitress came up to tell them the cars had arrived, K.Will wished her could walk them down to the cars, but knew they couldn't be seen together yet. "Someday," he said.She nodded. "Someday."^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^When they got back to the dorm, Suyeon insisted they all go to bed right away. "We've got a big day tomorrow, including two television appearances, so we all need to be fully rested."There was a little initial grumbling about this, but it was mixed with enough yawning that they finally all agreed she was right. As she was getting ready for bed, Elly realized she could still smell K.Will's cologne on her. She sighed quietly and climbed into the shower. By the time she'd finished scrubbing, all trace of his scent had been eradicated. She brushed her teeth and went to bed. As she was getting settled in, Rina leaned over to talk to her."Thank you for introducing us to him," she said.Elly smiled weakly, wishing - not for the first time - that her relationship didn't have to be kept a secret. "You're welcome. I wish I didn't have to hide that I'm dating him - I wish I could have told you all long ago.""Well, you told us now," Rina said, laying her hand on Elly's arm. "I think you two are so cute together! The world is totally missing out on an awesome couple."Elly's smile gained strength. "I think so too," she said, "but someday. . ."^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^As usual, Sei and Lucy were the first ones up. They walked hand in hand to the kitchen and started making breakfast."You know what's the bad part, though?" Lucy was saying. "I sang a duet with K.Will last night, and I can't tell anyone, and even if I did, they wouldn't believe me."Sei laughed. "Just imagine how Elly feels, then. She's dating K.Will and can't tell anyone."Lucy's face fell. "I know. It's like something out of a drama.""But at least she got to see him for a couple of hours yesterday," Sei said, trying to lift Lucy's suddenly-dampened spirits. "And we know they text a lot.""That's true," Lucy said, "but I just can't imagine. I can't imagine only getting to see you for a little while every month or two."Sei noticed the tears welling up in Lucy's eyes. "Lucy, no crying," she said, "Elly needs all of us to be happy for her. I'm sure she's got plenty of sadness, without us adding more."Lucy wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and stood up a little straighter. "I'm just so impressed that she's able to do it."Sei nodded. Just then the kettle whistled and Lucy made them both cups of tea while Sei boiled some eggs."Now. . . " Lucy said, as sat down to eat, "what can we do to help Suyeon? And Rina?"Sei shook her head firmly. "Nothing. Remember what happened when we weren't together yet and the unnies tried messing around with our relationship?"
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Elly, Rina, Sei, and Lucy were getting ready to go play soccer when Yoojung came up to them."Sorry to break up the game," she said, "but I need to take Rina away from you."Looking confusedly around, Rina tossed the soccer ball to Lucy and went over to stand by Yoojung. "What's going on?" she asked.Yoojung pulled her hands out from behind her back, revealing that she was holding a black beret, which she popped onto Rina's head and then adjusted to a jaunty angle. "There," she said. "Now you've got just enough time to get down to Cafe Americano.""What's going on? What is this?" Rina asked again, looking no less confused."This," Yoojung said, grabbing Rina's purse and phone and pressing them into her hands, "would be a blind date. You'll wait for Jeongyeon at Cafe Americano, and she'll recognize you by the beret.""Thank you, unnie," Rina said. "Do I look okay?""Just go," Yoojung said, "you dress well enough for a game of soccer that you're ready to go. You've even got makeup on. Now hurry and get down there before she gets there and you're not there.""Right," Rina said. She ducked forward and kissed Youjung on the cheek. "Thanks, unnie." And she turned and ran out the door.Elly reached over and closed the door, which Rina had left open in her haste. "So, do you think she's got a good chance?" she asked Yoojung."Oh yeah," Yoojujng said, nodding vigorously. "According to Momo, Jeongyeon is totes gay, she's single and looking, and Rina is just her type.""Yes!" Lucy jumped up and down and clapped her hands. "Oh, yay! I'm so excited for her.""Don't get your hopes too high," Sei warned her. "Just before we think they'd be perfect for each other doesn't mean they'll agree.""Well, while we're waiting to find out how it went, there's still the matter of our game of soccer.""But, your teammate's gone," Sei pointed out."Doesn't matter," Elly said, dropping her arm around Yoojung's shoulder. "Since Yoojung's responsible for Rina not being here, she can take her place.""But," Yoojung sputtered, "but- but- I'm not as good at soccer as Rina is."Elly looked at Yoojung. "You are kind of short," she said, as if noticing this fact for the first time, "so I'm sure Sei and Lucy won't mind spotting us half a point." She looked at Sei and raised her eyebrows. Sei exchanged looks with Lucy, then nodded."Oh, and by the way," Elly said to Yoojung as she led her over to get her shoes, "no pressure or anything, but we've each got a night of dishes riding on this game.""And you're sure you want me as your teammate?" Yoojung asked.Elly nodded. "Yeah, I so. I think you're better than you give yourself credit for, and a 2 on 2 game will really give you a chance to shine."Yoojung finished tying her shoes and stood up. "Well, I guess we'll find out. Let's go!"^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^Jeongyeon stopped just inside the door of Cafe Americano, looking at the blonde in the black beret who was waiting at the counter. She shook her head. Not really her type. Still, since Momo had gone to all the trouble of setting up this blind date for her, she figured she'd better at least give her a chance. She walked up and tapped her on the shoulder. "Lina?"Startled, the blonde turned around quickly. "I'm sorry," she said, "you must have me confused with someone else.""Oh- um- sorry," Jeongyeon said, backing up and looking around the cafe again. Suddenly she heard a voice calling her name and she spun around. The voice apparently belonged to a petite brunette in a black beret. Now this is more like it, she thought to herself. It shouldn't be possible to look this glamorous and this sporty at the same time, but somehow this girl pulled it off."Hi," Jeongyeon said, waving shyly as she crossed the room.The brunette hopped up from the stool she was sitting on and bowed to Jeongyeon. "Hi," she said, "I'm Rina!""Oh!" Jeongyeon gasped. "Rina! I thought I was supposed to be looking for someone name 'Lina'! Apparently Momo still hasn't gotten the hang of Korean R's." She stopped and bowed to Rina. "Hi! I'm Jeongyeon."As they sat down at the table, Rina pointed at a glass in front of Jeongyeon. "I bought you a coffee. I hope you like it. It's an iced mocha.""That's my favorite," Jeongyeon said, taking a sip. As she put the glass down, she looked at Rina and narrowed her eyes. "Why do I get the feeling," she said, "that you know more about me than I know about you?"Rina was silent for a moment while a blush spread over her face. "I. . . um- well. . . I asked one of my members to talk to Momo to try to arrange to introduce me to you. I had no idea they'd set us up on a blind date." She paused. "I hope you're not mad," she added quietly.Jeongyeon choked on her coffee. "Mad?" She looked incredulously at Rina. "On the contrary, I was just thinking I'd need to stop on the way home and buy Momo a jokbal as a thank you present." She looked at Rina and suddenly a look of recognition spread over her face. "You're Rina from Weki Meki! You're that Rina! Oh my God! I love your videos!" Jeongyeon suddenly realized how loud she was talking. "So much for playing it cool and being inconspicuous," she said. "We'd better go someplace else."Rina nodded. "Let's go," she said. "Do you want to go to the park?""Sure," Jeongyeon said as they headed out the door. "How do you feel about boats?""Boats?" Rina asked, looking confused.Jeongyeon nodded. "Boats. There's a place in the park that rents rowboats, and I've always thought that would be a great thing to do on a date.""Sure," Rina said, "that sounds great. Only I don't know how to row.""Don't worry," Jeongyeon said, "I know how." She took Rina's hand and led the way. As they walked through the park, chatting about this and that, Jeongyeon became very aware of how much taller she was than Rina. She smiled - whenever interviewers asked about her ideal type, she always told the truth, but left out the parts that made it clear she was looking for a girl. She did want someone who could make her feel comfortable, and would love if it they were someone who was funny and could amuse her. But she also wanted someone glamorous and someone shorter than her. It was kind of funny - even though she was the youngest of her siblings, she liked situations where she felt like she was the one in charge, and she liked the idea of someone who depended on her. Not someone needy and clingy - that would be gross - but someone who was okay with Jeongyeon being the dominant one - not like "whips and chains" dominant, but like - and suddenly she realized that Rina had just asked her a question and was waiting for an answer. Crap! She'd just met this girl who's just perfect and she was going to mess it up by not paying attention! "I'm so sorry," she said, "I was focused on making sure we were going the right way, so I missed what you were saying.""Oh, that's okay," Rina said, "I was just chattering. I had asked if you knew how to play soccer."Jeongyeon shook her head. "Not really. I played some when I was in elementary school, but as soon as I decided I wanted to be an idol, my mom put me in singing lessons and dance lessons, so I never had time for sports.""That's okay," Rina said, "I can teach you - you can't possibly be worse than Yoojung - and maybe you could teach me how to row a boat.""But what if I just want you to sit in the boat and look beautiful?" Jeongyeon asked, teasing.Rina snatched her hand away from Jeongyeon. "Really?" she asked. "You think just before I like makeup and pretty clothes that I can't like sports too?""Oh no, no!" Jeongyeon said, holding up her hands placatingly. "I was just joking with you - and apparently doing a really bad job of it. No, I totally get where you're coming from. I get it the other way around - just because I've got short hair, people think I can't like pretty things."Rina stopped and looked up at Jeongyeon. "It's going to take me some time to get used to you," she said. "I hope you'll give me the time.""You can have all the time you want," Jeongyeon thought, "so long as you spend it with me." But obviously it would never do to say that - she'd scare her away! "Oooh!" she thought. "I wish I could be a smooth talker like Nayeon! I really like this girl, and I don't want to screw it up!"Jeongyeon gestured ahead of them, indicating they had reached the boat rental shop. "We could start with the boat ride, if you still want to do that."Rina recaptured Jeongyeon's hand. "Of course I want to!" she said. Looking at the selection of rowboats for rent, she asked "Do they let you choose which boat you want?""I've never tried," Jeongyeon said. "Why? Is there one particular boat that's caught your eyes?""Ye-" Rina started to say, then stopped herself and said "No, it's silly. Any boat will be fine."Jeongyeon looked down at Rina and raised one eyebrow. "You were about to say yes just then. Which boat was it? I promise not to laugh."Rina blushed. "That one," she said, pointing to a pink boat with red and white accents."The Lovely Lady," Jeongyeon said, reading the name off the boat's stern. She smiled at Rina. "Sounds perfect. Just stay right here and I'll go rent the boat." She turned and headed toward the shop, but after just a couple of steps she stopped and turned around. "Don't go anywhere!" she said."I'll be right here," Rina said, pointing at the ground under her feet. Inside she was thinking "As if anything could get me to leave!" She watched Jeongyeon walk into the boat shop, taking advantage of the chance to look her over from head to toe. She thought that as beautiful as Jyeongyeon was in Twice's videos and on television, in real life she was even prettier. She blushed again, feeling silly. "Is this what it's like," she wondered, "to get exactly what you wanted?"^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^Suyeon was sitting on the couch listening to music when Elly and Yoojung came in from the soccer game. "How was the game?" she asked. "Who won?"Elly grabbed Yoojung's hand and raised it over her head. She and Yoojung started singing "We Are the Champions" and kept it up as they headed for the shower.Just then Sei and Lucy came in, mud-spattered and bedraggled. They sat down on the doormat to take off their shoes and wait for Elly and Yoojung to be done with the showers."Was it really that bad?" Suyeon asked."Bad?" Lucy exclaimed, "they convinced us to spot them half a point, and then Yoojung picks today to reveal she has some sort of soccer superpower she's never told us about! They could have spotted us five points and they still would have won!"Suyeon laughed. "Aren't you glad it was only one night's dishes riding on the game then?"Sei nodded, then leaned forward and rested her forehead on her knee. "The game was fun, even though I don't think I've ever been beaten quite that badly at soccer."Just then Suyeon's phone beeped. She looked and saw it was a text from Rina. "Hey guys," Suyeon said excitedly, "Rina wants to know if one of us can take her turn at cooking dinner tonight, because if all goes well she won't be home in time.""Tell her I'll do it!" Lucy said, her face lighting up with excitement."Cupid's little helper," Sei said, laughing. Lucy glared at her. "Okay," Sei said, "I'll help too. Tell Rina not to worry about us.""I already told her," Suyeon said. "I was going to do it, but since you two volunteered. . .""We've got this." Lucy said emphatically. "Maknaes have to look out for each other." She and Sei bumped fists.Just then Lua walked in, having spent the day who knows where, likely with Jennie. "Hey everybody! What's going on?"Lucy started talking a mile a minute. "Apparently Yoojung and Momo did some sort of magic, because they were able to get Rina and Jeongyeon set up on a blind date, and apparently it's going well because Rina's not going to be home in time to cook dinner, so Sei and I are making pan-fried tofu, as soon as we can get a shower, but we can't until Yoojung and Elly get out of the showers, and did you know that Yoojung kicks ass at soccer?" When she finally stopped to take a breath, Lua was able to process everything she'd just said."Wow," she said. "First time all month I go anywhere and everything happens while I'm gone!""So how'd your day go?" Sei asked. "How's Jennie?""She's okay," Lua said, going to the fridge to get some water. "She's a little worried about her seniors who are caught up in the Burning Sun scandal, but other than that she's fine.""So all those rumors about a video of Jennie?" Suyeon asked before she had time to think about what she was saying."Totally. Not. True," Lua said, looking coldly at Suyeon. "Now, if you're quite done insulting my girlfriend, I'm going to my room until dinner.""Way to go, Suyeon," Lucy said as she put her shoes and Sei's in the shoe rack. "Could you have been any more offensive?"Suyeon looked to Sei for support. Seeing none, she turned back to Lucy. "I was just. . . you know. . . you hear all the rumors, and it could have been true.""Stop talking. You're just making it worse," Sei said.Suyeon stopped and looked down at the floor. "I didn't mean anything by it," she said quietly. She started to get up. "I should go apologize.""Not right now," Lucy said. "Go take a walk, we'll talk to Lua, and hopefully you can apologize to her at dinner.""Thanks Lucy," Suyeon said. She started to hug Lucy, noticed the mud all over her, and stopped herself. Slipping on her shoes, she headed for the door. "So. . . be back at 6 for dinner?"Sei and Lucy looked at each other and shrugged. "Six-ish," Sei said, "and if you have a choice between being early or being late, be late."Suyeon nodded. "Thanks again," she called out as she shut the door."So. . . what do we do now?" Sei asked Lucy.Elly happened to walk in from the bathroom at just that time. "You go get a shower before you track mud all over the place," she said as she flopped down on the couch. "Unless there's been some crisis that developed while I was showering.""Just Suyeon being Suyeon," Sei said as she headed toward the bathroom. "You tell her," she said to Lucy.So Lucy told Elly about the conversation between Suyeon and Lua - and about halfway through, Yoojung came out of the shower and she had to start over. "So that's where things stand," she finished. "We were hoping that if we get Suyeon out of the way, we could talk to Lua and maybe calm her down enough that she'd be willing to accept Suyeon's apology over dinner.""Sounds like a good enough plan," she said. "You go get your shower. I'll go talk to Lua.""Do you want me to come with you?" Yoojung asked.Elly shook her head. "If I go talk to her, it's a roommate expressing concern. If you and I both go, it's a mass intervention of unnies and could backfire."Yoojung leaned into the couch, piling up cushions around herself as she grabbed her phone. "Okay then. You go do that, I'll stay here and text Doyeon, find out when she's coming home."
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"Really, Suyeon means well," Elly was saying as she and Lua came into the living room, "it's just sometimes she speaks before she thinks."Lua nodded. "I know. It's just - that she could even consider the idea that those rumors about Jennie are true. . . she made me so mad."Elly sat down on the couch and pulled Lua down next to her. "That's perfectly understandable. But keep in mind that some of our seniors have been in situations like that. Hell, some of the girls in our generation are in situations like that right now. I can't say who, but I'm sure you've heard the rumors."Lua shook her head. "But I've heard those same rumors about us, and I know they're not true.""Just because some of the rumors aren't true, doesn't mean all of them aren't. I-"Just then the door opened and Doyeon and Suyeon walked in."I'm going to see if Sei and Lucy need any help," Elly said, quickly turning away from whatever she had been about to say. She waved at Suyeon and Doyeon on her way to the kitchen."And I'm going to go see what Yoojung is up to," Doyeon said, heading off to the small room.And just like that, Suyeon and Lua were left alone in the living room. While Lua stared directly into Suyeon's face, Suyeon had difficulty meeting her eyes. Suyeon sat down at the far end of the couch from Lua and turned toward her, her hands clasped in her lap."I'm sorry for what I said about Jennie," Suyeon said, her voice barely audible. "I wasn't thinking about what I was saying and how insulting I was being. I'm sorry."Lua sat quiet for a moment, choosing her words carefully. "I'm still angry at you, Suyeon, and I'm not going to pretend that I'm not. If you can feel that way about the woman I love, then in a way, you're feeling that about me." Lua sniffled as tears began to run down her face. "Is that what you think of me, Suyeon?"Suyeon slid across the couch and embraced Lua. "No, no, no no no nononono. That's not what I think at all. I was just being stupid, you know? I mean, I dated Moonbin while he cheated on me for six months, so obviously I'm not the best at relationships. I'm so sorry I hurt you!"Lua looked up at Suyeon. "These last few months, listening to all the things people have been saying about Jennie when I couldn't speak up to defend her, have been the hardest thing ever. Then to come into our apartment, one of the few places in the whole world I thought I would be safe from that, and to have you say those things, it was just. . ." She broke down crying again, as Suyeon sat there and tried to comfort her."Dinner's ready!" Lucy called out as she came out of the kitchen. She stopped short when she saw Suyeon and Lua on the couch. "Or. . . you know. . . pan-friend tofu is good cold, too." She started slowly backing out of the living room.Lua shook her head. "No it's not." She sniffled. "Thanks for trying to make me feel better, everyone. Let's go eat." She grabbed a handful of Kleenex and started wiping her face. Suyeon gave her and hug and then stood up, extending her hand to help Lua up.When they were all gathered around the table, Elly said. "Everyone, let's thank Sei and Lucy for tonight's dinner. Because they volunteered to cook, we've got this delicious food, and because they lost this afternoon's soccer game, they'll be taking care of the dishes as well.Sei and Lucy blushed as everyone cheered for them. Under the table, Lucy reached over and took Sei's hand.Curfew had come and gone, hours ago. Suyeon was pacing back and forth, fuming. From her seat on the couch, Doyeon said "Why don't you go ahead and go to bed? I can take care of Rina when she gets in."Suyeon paused for a moment, unsure if she should take Doyeon up on this offer, or if she should stay up and deal with Rina herself, prove that she could be good leader despite the afternoon's fiasco with Lua. Finally an unsuppressible yawn settled the question for her. "Thanks, Doyeon," she said, patting Doyeon on the shoulder on her way to the small bedroom. "I owe you one.""Not as big as the one Rina owes me," Doyeon mumbled to herself as she crossed her arms and settled in for what could be a very long wait.Forty-five minutes later, Rina still wasn't back. Doyeon was starting to nod off when she heard a door open behind her. She looked around and saw Lua coming out of the big bedroom. She flopped down on the couch next to Doyeon and leaned against her."What's wrong?" Doyeon asked.Lua sighed. "I don't know. I'm still upset about what Suyeon said this afternoon. I know I've got to let it go, but I just can't. I'm trying to sleep and I'm lying there tossing and turning, hearing her voice echoing in my head."Doyeon shifted around and put her arm around Lua. "It's understandable to be upset about something like that. But, you know, Suyeon's just Suyeon. Sometimes she says stupid things because she doesn't think before she talks. I really don't think she meant to hurt you with anything she said. Can you think of anything she could say or do that might make things better now?"As the silence stretched out, Doyeon craned her head around and saw that Lua had fallen asleep. Wriggling her arm free, she grabbed a throw from the end of the couch and wrapped it around Lua, who promptly laid down and put her head in Doyeon's lap. Doyeon tried to move her, but Lua was sound asleep and couldn't be shifted. Doyeon sighed and got as comfortable as she could - what had started out to be a long night had just gotten that much longer.Doyeon watched the clock, waiting for Rina to get in. After a while, she noticed that the clock was skipping numbers - apparently she was taking micronaps as her body tried to get some sleep. Sliding out from under Lua, she went to the kitchen and made a cup of tea to help her stay awake. Her tea had just finished steeping when she heard the apartment door open. Normally Rina walked gracefully and quietly, so Doyeon was surprised at how much noise she was making, blundering into chairs, knocking things over. She tiptoed into the living room, felt around for the lightswitch and turned it on. The lights temporarily blinded both of them, used as they were to the dark. Finally Rina was able to squint enough to see Doyeon."Hi unnie," she said, her voice a little louder than normal. "Sorry I'm a little bit late. I was out with Jeongyeon.""A little late? A little? You're -" she looked at the clock - "almost 4 hours late. We've got to be up for promos in 4 hours!" Doyeon took a moment to take in Rina's appearance. Her shirt had obviously been unbuttoned at some point while she was out, because not it had been rebuttoned crooked. Her lipstick was smeared, which is totally out of character for Rina. And what was that? Three quick steps carried Doyeon across the room. She grabbed Rina's head and turned it to the side, letting the light shine on her neck. "You let her give you a hickey?" Doyeon whistled softly. "And a really prize-winner too - that's going to be a bitch to cover up with makeup tomorrow."Rina wrench her head out of Doyeon's grasp and shaded her eyes with her hand. "Please, unnie. Can we talk about this tomorrow? I'm tired and my head's starting to hurt and I probably had a little too much to drink.""You'll be going to bed in just a minute," Doyeon said, but first you need to come with me. Taking Rina's hand, she led her into the kitchen. She made Rina drink two big glasses of water and take a couple of Tylenol. Then she marched Rina into the bathroom and made her take off all her makeup and clean her face before going to bed. "The last thing you need," she said, "is to have an acne breakout because you didn't clean your face thoroughly. That'll just call attention to you and make it more likely that someone will see your hickey. Which you'd better hope Sei has some ideas for how to cover this up, because seeing it in the light, I have no idea what we can use that will stay on all day.""All right, unnie, I get it. I screwed up," Rina whined as she headed for her bedroom, shedding clothes as she went. "Can't you just be happy for me that I had a good day with Jeongyeon? We went boating around the lake, then we went out for dinner, then she took me to a secret nightclub where we drank and listened to a jazz band. And she kissed me! So many times! I think she loves me."Doyeon shook her head. "That's just. . . yeah, that's great. We can talk about it all you want after tomorrow's promotions. Right now you've got to get some sleep."But Rina had already fallen asleep, lying crossways on her bed. Doyeon rolled her eyes and helped Rina get straightened out and covered with her blanket. Then, stopping on the way to turn out the living room light and check on Lua, she made her way to her own bed.Doyeon woke up to the shrill beeping of her alarm. She hit snooze and rolled over, but couldn't get back to sleep with all the noise her bandmates were making. Sighing, she got up, put on her robe, and headed for the kitchen to get some breakfast. All the other members of Weki Meki were apparently already there, listening to Rina tell about her date with Jeongyeon. Doyeon tried to tune them out as she started making herself a cup of tea. She glared at Rina. It wasn't fair - Rina had been the one out drinking half the night and Doyeon was the one with a headache. Dry-swallowing a couple of Tylenol, she pulled the teabag out of her cup and downed half her tea in one gulp."So then after we left the club," Rina was saying, "Jeongyeon hired a black car to take me back to the dorm, and she showed me how to get into the dorm without getting caught! And Doyeon took such good care of me when I got in - she made me drink water and take Tylenol and be sure to get all my makeup off. Life is so great!""We'll see if you still feel that way after all today's promos," Suyeon said. "Anyway," Sei said, "Alice-sunbae got back to me with instructions on how to cover up your hickey, so if you're done with breakfast, we can go get to work on that."Rina drank the last of her tea. "OK. Let's go."The maknaes bustled around putting their breakfast dishes in the sink and then headed for the bathroom. Sei needed to do Rina's makeup, Lucy went along to learn how to do this in case she or Sei ever gave the other one a hickey, and Lua went along just because it was better than being in a room with Suyeon right now.Once the maknaes were out of the kitchen, Doyeon took the rest of her tea and a bowl of rice and sat down at the table with the other unnies."Well," Doyeon said, "if I thought I was going to talk some sense into Rina last night, I was sadly mistaken.""Don't worry about it," Suyeon said. "It's not like none of us have ever stayed out after curfew."Doyeon shook her head. "Yeah, but four hours after? It's only a matter of time before she does something bad enough that management takes notice, and then where will we be?""We'll just have to do what we can to keep her out of trouble," Elly said.Just then, Youjung's phone beeped. She picked it up and looked at it. "It's Jeongyeon. 'Apparently I drank too much last night. Did Rina mention anything that I need to apologize for?'""What are you going to tell her?" Suyeon asked."'Apparently not,'" Yoojung read out as she typed her response, "'she's been singing your praises all morning.'""Let me see your phone," Suyeon said, reaching for it. Once she had her hands on it, she started typing. "'Hi, it's Suyeon. Rina didn't get back until 4 hours past curfew last night! Please try to get her in on time!"Yoojung reclaimed her phone, which beeped just a few seconds later. "'OMG, it was that late? I was having such a great time with her I totally lost track of time.'"Tell her we've got promos today and have to go," Suyeon said, "and make sure she's got Rina's number, unless you want all their communication to go through you.""Good point," Yoojung said, typing furiously.Just then Sei ushered Rina into the kitchen. "How'd I do?" she asked, gesturing toward Rina's neck."I can't even see it," Doyeon said. Turning to Yoojung, she said "Make sure Jeongyeon knows about Rina's monster hickey so she can be more careful in the future.""You got it," Yoojung said, typing."Ugggh," Rina groaned. "Are you unnies going to be all up in my business?""When your business threatens the group, yes," Doyeon said, before Suyeon had a chance to say anything."OK, fine," Rina said, rolling her eyes. "I just was so excited, I was the last member to be a singleton - even Lucy got to date before me!""Well," Suyeon said, obviously trying to choose her words carefully, "I think last night more than made up for lost time, so be more careful from now on."Rina nodded. "Sure thing. I've got to go get dressed for today. You all should too."Doyeon finished the last of her rice and put her bowl and spoon in the sink. "I hate to admit it, but she's right. We've got a busy day today and we need to go get ready."
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Even with the makeup Sei had put on her, Rina started getting paranoid about her hickey as they drove to their first event of the day. She made Sei promise to stay on that side of her in case the makeup started to flake off. It didn't help matters that the day's events were all close-up events: A grand opening of a record store, lunch at a restaurant one of their seniors was opening, a podcast interview, a fansign, and then an appearance on a cooking show.Suyeon spent the ride to the first event trying to get up the nerve to talk to Lua. She knew she'd said absolutely the wrong thing the day before, and she wanted to try to make things right. She just wasn't sure how to start. Finally, when she saw they were only about 10 minutes away from their destination, she knew she had to do something now or never. She reached up to the seat in front of her and tapped Lua on the shoulder. Lua turned around, and as much as she tried to hide it, Suyeon couldn't help but notice the fleeting expression of disappointment that crossed her face when she saw who wanted her attention.Suyeon took a deep breath, in hopes of getting it all out before Lua shut her down. "Lua, I just wanted to say again that I'm sorry about yesterday. I didn't really believe those things about Jennie, and I don't believe them about you - or any of our members! I was just talking without thinking first, which is a bad thing to do and I'm going to try to stop." The torrent of words finally came to a stop when she ran out of breath. Lua thoughtful as she considered what Suyeon had said. After taking several calming breaths, she looked Suyeon in the eyes. "Suyeon, I believe that you're sorry, and I accept your apology. But it's going to take some time for me to trust you the way I did before." She stopped and looked down, thinking. When she raised her eyes back to Suyeon's, her eyes were glistening. "You're still my friend, and you're still my Leader Ji, but I just wish you'd never said those things, you know?"Suyeon leaned forward to the limit of her seatbelt and hugged Lua. "I wish that too. I'm so sorry for hurting you like that."Just then they heard their manager's voice from the front of the van. "OK girls! Last-minute makeup checks! We'll be there in 3 minutes."Suyeon disengaged from Lua and looked her over. "Believe it or not, your makeup's still okay."Lua surveyed Suyeon. "Yours too!" They laughed together, the tension apparently broken for the moment.Just then the van stopped and they could hear the Ki-Lings screaming for them outside."Time to go!" Suyeon said, unbuckling her seatbelt and straightening her blouse. "Okay everybody," she said, "these Ki-Lings have probably been waiting a couple of hours for us, so let's be sure to make it worth their while." The record store appearance went great - virtually everyone there was a Ki-Ling, so even if they had screwed up, the crowd would love them anyway. The lunch appearance was a little more challenging. The audience there was mostly foodies, for whom the appearance of a K-pop group was at best irrelevant, and at worst a distraction from the ramen. So they posed for selfies and signed autographs for anyone who approached their table, but spent most of their time just sitting there eating their ramen, trying to keep the focus on the food. They must have been doing the right thing, because Nara-sunbae stopped by their table twice to thank them for coming and to tell them what a great job they were doing. The cast interview was shaping up to be the worst ever. It was for an American podcast, so that meant that they had to have a translator for the questions and their answers. The other downside of being interviewed for an American podcast was that the host didn't know what questions to ask and what questions not to ask. So far, pretty much every question was something a Korean interviewer would never ask about: Their dating ban, drug use among K-pop idols, their opinions on the LGBT community, Fantagio's business operations, Korean attitudes toward mental illness. Finally, they got to the question they'd all known was coming, but they were all dreading. "What are your thoughts about the Burning Sun scandal?"Lua opened her mouth to say something, but Suyeon rushed and started speaking quickly before Lua had a chance. "We have every confidence that the investigators will find the wrongdoers and bring them to justice. But even more important, that they'll be able to clear the names of anyone who has been wrongly implicated in this affair."Lua smiled and nodded at Suyeon. Doyeon raised her eyebrows, impressed that Suyeon had beem able to come up with that on the spur of the moment.The interview seemed content with this answer and turned the interview in a different direction. "Back to dating for a moment, and I want to ask each of you this: If you were a guy, which of your bandmates would you want to date? Let's start with Lucy."Lucy's eyes got wide - she hadn't expected the question to come to her first. So far the interview had been questions that were all better answered by her unnies, and she'd been sort of drifting along, not really paying attention. Now she started to panic: Should she name Sei? Or should she name someone else to call attention away from her relationship with Sei? She looked back and forth from Sei to Doyeon, but failed to see anything in their faces that gave her any guidance. She even looked at Suyeon, but saw nothing helpful there either. She was about to open her mouth and hope that the first thing that came out would be accetable when Yoojung spoke up."If Lucy was a guy," Yoojung was saying, totally drawing all the attention off of Lucy for the moment, "I would hope that she would date me. Lucy is always so thoughtful, and so concerned about the feelings of others that whoever gets to date her once the ban is lifted is going to be very lucky."Lucy looked at Yoojung and silently mouthed "Thank you!" Jooyung smiled back. They then watched the other members give their answers. The big surprise was Lua selecting Suyeon: "You never know what she's going to do, and that kind of unpredictability, combined with her good heart, would make dating her really exciting." Lucy smiled - apparently things were okay between Lua and Suyeon again, or at least better than they were yesterday evening. Sei helped Rina put her sardines into her tea ball - why Rina had thought it was a good idea to wear long nails on the day they were doing a cooking show remained a mystery - and they both added their anchovies to the pots of broth they were making, hooking the chains attached to the tea balls on the edge of the pots. Then the camera was off them and back to Elly and Doyeon, who were making rice cakes - when the show's host had said they were going to make tteokbokki from scratch, she really meant from scratch. Sei had never made her own rice cakes, and after seeing all the work that Doyeon and Elly were having put into it, she doubted she ever would. It was much easier to just pay 3000 won for a bag of rice cakes from the refrigerator case at the corner store.Once the cooking show was over - the tteokbokki were delicious, but none of them ever wanted to put that much work into cooking something - they all climbed into the van for the ride back to the dorm. Sei and Lucy settled into the back corner on the passenger side. "So," Sei said, "Yoojung wants you to date her. Like that's ever going to happen." She flumped back in the seat and shook her head.Lucy leaned over and kissed her on the nose. "Awwww, someone's jealous!" she said, adding a couple of kisses to Sei's forehead. "I think that's so cute.""Yoojung and Doyeon both wanted to date you," Sei said, looking wounded. "No one wanted to date me! What's wrong with me?"Lucy wrapped her arms around Sei and hugged her tightly. "Nothing's wrong with you," she said. "Besides, you, Lua, and Rina all wanted to date Suyeon. What's up with that?"Sei turned toward Lucy and nuzzled against Lucy's shoulder. Looking up at Lucy, she said "That's why I hate that question. It get inside your head and you spend the rest of the day wondering 'Did she really mean that, or was that just for the interview?"""Well," Lucy said," pulling Sei closer to her, "until we're able to tell interviewers the truth, you need to know that any answer I give to that question is just for the interview. Sometimes the answer you give to that question carries a hidden message to one of your bandmates - like Lua choosing Suyeon today - but most of the time it's just something fun to entertain the Ki-Lings. Don't take it so seriously, okay?"Sei nodded, but Lucy couldn't help noticing the tears glistening like stars in her eyelashes. "Just relax," Lucy said, "we'll be home soon and you won't have to worry about all this." Lucy leaned down kissed Sei quickly. "And there's plenty more where that came from," she said, "and they're all for you."Lucy couldn't see Sei's face, but she could tell she was smiling. When they got back to the dorm, Rina joined Elly and Lua in sitting by the window, texting her special someone."How long 'til our next day off?" she asked."Eleven days," Elly said, "and then 3 days after that we get 2 days off in a row." Elly always had Weki Meki's schedule and K-will's memorized, and could tell you at a moment's notice where time off overlapped between the two.Rina counted off the days on her fingers. "But that's after Twice leaves for America! You mean I won't get to see Jeongyeon again until after she gets back from America?"Lua nodded. "Welcome to our world. When Jennie showed up at our Christmas party, that was the first time I'd seen her in three months." She looked at Elly. "How 'bout you, Elly? How long was your longest dry spell?"Elly didn't even have to stop and think. "Four and half months. Right after we debuted."Rina's jaw dropped. "Three months? Four and a half months? You mean I'll only get to see Jeongyeon three or four times a year?"Elly laughed softly. "No, it's not quite as bad as all that. During the summer is when you'll get to see her the least, but you'll get to see her a lot more during the winter, especially around New Year's.""Besides," Lua added, "after a while the two or you will get better at carving out small bits of time to spend together, even when you don't have a day off." A wistful smile crossed over Lua's face. "Jenny and I once spent 6 minutes making out in a supply closet at MBC Studies."Rina couldn't believe this. "You did not!"Lua nodded, smiling smugly. "Oh yes we did!" She accepted a high-five from Elly."If you're going to date someone outside our band - especially someone from another label - you're going to have to be creative." She looked at Rina. "And invest in a good Bluetooth headset. You'll need it if you and Jeongyeon want to have sexytimes chats without waking up your roommates."Rina's eyes widened. "You mean you and K-Will?"Elly nodded. "Oh yeah." She paused for a moment. "Sometimes before your roommates go to sleep, since Lua insists on staying awake 'til all hours of the night.""I can't help it!" Lua protested. "Sometimes Jennie's not free until 2 in the morning!""Oh been there, done that," Elly commiserated. "Especially when one of us is in another time-zone."Rina shook her head. "I can see I've got a lot to learn." She looked at Elly. "What about curfew?""You'd better try to obey curfew." Elly leaned closed to Rina. "After last night, you in particular had better try to obey curfew, if you don't want to get on Doyeon's bad side. Still, there is a way around it. Can you guess what it is?"After wracking her brain, Rina was forced to admit she couldn't."Mornings!" Elly said with a laugh. "Why do you think I so rarely have breakfast with the rest of the group? I'd say 90% of my dates with K-Will are breakfast dates."Rina yawned - just the thought of getting up at 5 in the morning was making her tired. "I'd better get to bed," she said. "Thank you both for all your advice here. It looks like I'm going to have to become a morning person.""Anytime," Lua said. "And especially don't hesitate to ask Elly, she's like the James Bond of K-pop dating."Elly mimed shooting a pistol. "Welcome to the club," she said. Doyeon came into the kitchen to find Suyeon yelling into her phone. Well, as close to yelling as one can get without actually getting any louder - the fierceness in Suyeon's voice was unmistakable."Yeah, I bet you'd like that," she said. "What the matter - finding a girlfriend not so easy now that everyone knows what a creep you are?" A pause. "Yeah? You just keep telling yourself that." Another pause. "As if. And don't bother trying to call back - I'm blocking your number." And with that, she hung up and suddenly noticed Doyeon standing next to her. She gave a little start. "Oh! Doyeon! I didn't see you there!""You were preoccupied," Doyeon said. She opened the refrigerator to get a can of seltzer. 'No need to ask who that was. Good job shutting him down. Some of the members had been afraid you might take him back."Suyeon scoffed. "That weaselly little snake? No way! I may no be the brightest, but there are limits to my stupidity."Doyeon reached up and stroked Suyeon's hair. "You're not stupid! I don't want to hear you talking about yourself that way!""Well what would you call it?" she asked, her eyes flashing. "First the Lucy-Sei-Lime party fiasco, then the situation with Moonbin, then the thing with Lua yesterday - wherever there's chaos and turmoil, Suyeon's right in the middle of it!""Hey," Doyeon said, "the Lucy-Sei-Lime party was my idea. And you can't feel too back about Moonbin - not only did he fool all your members, he fooled Momo and all of her members too. You weren't unique in trusting him where you shouldn't have. And the Lua thing? That was just you talking before you thought thing through. Just "Suyeon being Suyeon" as Sei calls it.""Oh, well that makes me feel loads better," Suyeon said. "If the maknaes think I'm an idiot, how can I be their leader? I might as well step down and let you be the leader."Doyeon wrapped Suyeon in a hug. "The maknaes don't think you're an idiot - they think you're human. And you're a much better leader than I would be - if I was the leader, I might be better at getting them not to break rules, but there's no way I could inspire them like you do."Suyeon sniffled. She looked at up Doyeon. "You think so?"Doyeon nodded. "I really thing so." She gestured toward Suyeon's phone. "Now go ahead and block Moonbin's number before you forget."
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Doyeon was sitting on the couch reading a celebrity gossip magazine. It was the usual mix of truth, half-truths, exaggerations, and flat-out lies as usual. None of it really made an impression on her until she spotted one particular item. It was in one of the columns where the columnist just hinted at who the people were and what was happening, so that if they turned out to be wrong, they couldn't get in trouble for publishing falsehoods."Elly," Doyeon called out. "You'd better come see this."Elly came out of the bathroom, her makeup half-applied. "What is it?" Seeing what magazine Doyeon was holding, her face turned into a scowl. "Why do you even bother with those things?""Because sometimes they're right," Doyeon said, holding the magazine out toward Elly and pointing to one of the paragraphs.Elly read the paragraph, her face growing paler and paler. When she reached the end, she said "I've got to call him" and scampered off to get her phone.Sei had wandered in from the kitchen in time to see the end of this exchange. "What's going on?" she asked.She handed the magazine to Sei, who read the paragraph aloud for Lucy, who'd just followed her into the room. "Do You Call It Romance? Or is it just a Crush? Who's the girl group songstress who's captured the heart of everyone's favorite balladeer? Hopefully he won't end up Dropping the Tears and we won't end up saying 'I Don't Like Your Girlfriend.' But he's always been so Picky, Picky that I think we'll see this Love Blossom."Lucy scowled. "Why does Elly get the coded column treatment and Momo and Moonbin ended up getting named on the front page?""It's because of K.Will," Sei explained.Seeing the look of incomprehension on Lucy's face, Doyeon picked up the explanation. "His first songs came out 15 years ago. He's practically a national treasure. A lot of ajummas are fans of his, and they'll be mad at the magazine if they publish the story and it turns out to be wrong.""Which it won't," Lucy pointed out."Which it won't," Doyeon conceded. 'But that's why Elly had to call K.Will right away - so they could decide on a strategy of how to deal with this.""What can they do?" Lucy asked.Doyeon shrugged. "Not much. They'll probably pretend not to have seen the item, and if an interviewer questions them about it directly - more like with him than with her - they'll just blame it on the press needing to fill the pages, even on a slow news day, so sometimes a hunch or an idea gets blown up into a story when there's really nothing there."Elly came back just at the end of this. "Plus, he's about to announce that he's leaving for Japan today for an extended stay at a health spa."Lucy got indignant. "So he's just running away and leaving Elly to face the press alone?"Sei did her best to calm her girlfriend down. "No, it's not like that at all.""The press will be coming for him a lot harder than they'll be coming for me," Elly added. "If he hadn't already had the idea, I was going to suggest it to him.""Plus, we need to eliminate the possibility of any encounters between them, even a chance crossing in the street. The less that gets said about this, the sooner everyone will forget it was ever published." Doyeon said.Just then the front door opened and Suyeon came in. Seeing so many of her members standing in the middle of the living room, she immediately asked "What's up? Is something wrong?"Doyeon showed Suyeon the magazine. As she read it, a variety of emotions ran across her face - first confusion, then fear, then anger and determination. "Somebody go find Yoojung, Lua, and Rina. We've got to have an all-band meeting." Once everyone had been gathered up and the remaining members had been brought up to date on the situation."We don't know exactly what this columnist knows - or thinks they know. And since all her clues point toward the group, not to any specific member, the press will be watching all of us. So until we're sure that all of this has blown over, no dating. Nothing that could be misconstrued as dating. Pretty much no socializing with anyone outside the band. The press doesn't know what they're looking for, so they'll be happy to find anything."Rina shrugged. "K.Will's going to Japan, and Jeongyeon's leaving for America next week, so it shouldn't be that big a deal.""What about Sei and Lucy?" Lua asked petulantly.Sei opened her mouth to respond, but Doyeon started speaking before she had a chance, hopefully heading off a fight in the maknea line. "Sei and Lucy, as well as Yoojung and me, will be making sure not to do anything couple-y in public. In fact, we shouldn't even be alone together in public." She looked significantly at Lucy. "Nothing that would give anyone any clues."Sei started taking her keys off the Gudetama keychain that Lucy had bought her. Lucy reached out to stop her. "You don't have to do that, do you?"Sei kept taking the keys off the ring. "You heard Doyeon - nothing couple-y."Lucy's eyes filled with tears, which immediately started running down her face. "This sucks!" Lucy yelled. "This sucks and I hate it! All because some ajussis in an office decided it's better for business if we don't date. I hate it!" Lucy rushed into the big bedroom and slammed the door behind herself.Sei jumped up to rush after her, but Doyeon stopped her. "No, let her calm down a little bit before you go in there."But when the sounds didn't get any quieter, and when the crying was punctuated by a thud, Doyeon turned back to Sei. "On second though, maybe you'd better go after her."Sei jumped up and ran into the big bedroom, shutting the door behind herself."I hope Sei gets her calmed down soon," Suyeon said. "We've got dance practice in an hour and then the maknaes have school."Elly's face blanched. "We have dance practice today?""Yes. So?" Suyeon wasn't seen the connection."If we had promotions today, we'd be running all over the city," Elly explained, "but if we've got dance practice, we'll be at the Fantagio building all morning. What if the managers decide to start interviewing us? I'd better stay home sick today."Doyeon shook her head vigorously. "No way. If you're suddenly absent, the managers will take it as an admission of guilt.""So what do I do?" Elly asked.Suyeon shrugged. "You go to practice. And if anyone asks you about it, you lie your ass off.""Should we pretend to not have seen the story at all?" Elly asked.Doyeon shook her head. "No. I'm sure management knows I subscribe to those magazines - I bet they read all of our mail! - so it wouldn't be believable for us not to have read any of them. All we can do is play it off as the columnist being wrong. At this point all they've shown is someone talking about this. If they had a picture of you and K.Will that'd be different." Elly opened her mouth to interject, but Doyeon just kept on talking. "We can be pretty sure they don't have a photo or anything more solid, because if they had a photo, they probably would have printed it. And they definitely would have talked to management about this - and the fact that Manager-nim's not down here yelling and screaming and getting red in the face is a pretty good sign they didn't.""So all we can do," Suyeon added, "is lie. 'I'm not dating K.Will. No one in Weki Meki is dating K.Will.' Practice it in a mirror if you have to, but be able to say it convincingly."'I hate this," Elly said, crossing her arms and folding in on herself. "I hate being made to feel that K.Will and I are doing something that we should be ashamed of."Almost instantly, Yoojung was sitting next to Elly, giving her a hug. "No, you're not doing anything to be ashamed of. Hell, you're doing something that tons of Korean girls your age would love to be doing. But for now, you've got to keep it secret. You know better than any of us how to do that."Elly nodded, blinking back tears. "I know," she said. "I just feel like if this is happening then all our best efforts weren't good enough, so I don't know what to do.""All you can do," Yoojung said, 'is keep doing what you've been doing. And the fact that K.Will is out of the country will make things easier for you. 'I don't know much about K.Will, but I know enough to know that if he did get caught dating a member of a girl group, he wouldn't leave the country and leave her to face the consequences alone.'"Elly smiled weakly. "That's pretty good. I'll have to remember that one." Dance practice went off without a hitch. In fact, they were doing so well that they decided to record a video for the Ki-Lings. Once they'd filmed the video, they watched it to be sure they liked it and then posted it. Then they left the studio, the maknaes headed off to school and the unnies back to the apartment. They were almost out of the building when they heard Manager-nim's voice coming from behind them."Suyeon-a," Manager-nim said, "I'm sure you've heard the rumors. We need to talk in my office."Suyeon rolled her eyes. "Do we have to? We all know there's nothing to it.""Even if there's nothing to it, we still need to talk about it,' Manager-nim said, her words sounding harsh and clipped.Suyeon turned back to face Manager-nim, who instantly turned and started leading the way to her office. When they reached Manager-nim's office, she sat behind her desk and motioned for Suyeon to take one of the chairs across from her. Suyeon watched as Manager-nim moved some stacks of paper around her desk before starting the conversation, amazed at how much power this ordinary-looking middle-aged woman had over all of them. Manager-nim looked like a typical ajumma who'd leave her office at the end of the day and go home and fix dinner for her family. But Suyeon knew that Manager-nim controlled when Weki Meki made a comeback, how much would be spent to promote it, which shows they'd appear on - everything. Suyeon also knew that this delay, with the shuffling of papers, was Manager-nim's way of making sure that Suyeon was aware of who had the power in this room. Finally, Manager-nim stapled and a stack of papers, put them on the corner of her desk, and turned to Suyeon."Suyeon, I need you to be honest with me: Is anyone in Weki Meki dating K.Will?" Manager-nim stared into Suyeon's eyes, her gaze feeling like it could see straight into her mind.Suyeon shook her head. "No, Manager-nim. I mean, K.Will? Have we ever even been on a show with him? Besides he's practically an ajussi."Manager-nim raised an eyebrow. "Girls younger than you call K.Will oppa and you know it. So I'll ask you again: Is anyone in Weki Meki dating K.Will?"Suyeon shook her head more vigorously. "No."Manager-nim looked like she wanted to believe Suyeon but wasn't sure if she should. "If you find out that one of your members is dating, be sure to let me know. I can help." Manager-nim picked up a stack of papers, then stopped and looked at Suyeon appraisingly. "Remember what I said, Suyeon-a," she said, "if any of your members is violating the dating clause - with anyone - you can let me know and I'll help, but I can't help you if I don't know." She put the stack of papers down and leaned back in her chair. "Anyway, you've said that no one's dating, and I feel like I can believe you. Go have some lunch - something light, not too fattening - and I'll see you tomorrow.And just like that, Suyeon was dismissed. Keeping her face carefully neutral, she said good-bye to Manager-nim and left the office. Now that Suyeon had directly lied to Manager-nim about this, the stakes were higher. If Suyeon ratted out Elly, she knew that Manager-nim's "help" would consist of Weki Meki making a comeback with only seven members. On the other hand, if she kept Elly's secret and got found out, Manager-nim's bosses would probably break up Weki Meki. "The only thing to do," she thought to herself, "is make sure we don't get found out."
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Suyeon, Elly, Doyeon, and Yoojung were all back in Weki Meki's dorm after Suyeon's conversation with Manager-nim."Do you think she believed you?" Elly asked, concern written all over her face.Suyeon shrugged. "It's hard to tell. But even if she does have suspicions, she doesn't actually know anything or she'd have called me out on it."Elly nodded. "I've just got to keep hoping this will blow over.""It will," Doyeon said. "It may take a little long than it took Moonbin and Momo to blow over, because the agencies can't issue a denial - they don't even know if there's anything to deny. But still people's attention will move on to the next celebrity scandal."Yoojung looked thoughtful for a moment. "We've got to do something for the maknaes. They're just caught in the crossfire here and you can tell they're frustrated. Especially Lucy." Elly looked curious. "What did you have in mind?""Well," Yoojung said, smiling brightly, "if Suyeon and Doyeon will join me in staying out of the small room this evening, we can fix it up so that Sei and Lucy can have an inside-the-apartment date. You all know how hard privacy is to come by around here. Just imagine how happy they'll be with two solid hours of privacy!"Doyeon nodded. "That sounds good. But what about Lua?""Well," Yoojung said, "it's a little bit harder to plan for Lua. . .""But I think it's even more important," Doyeon chimed in. "She was really upset about things this morning, and if we do something for Sei and Lucy and can't do something for her, it's liable to just make the situation worse.""We just give her the same thing we gave Lucy and Sei," Elly said.Suyeon looked dubious. "We can't give Lucy and Jennie an inside-the-apartment date. Getting Jennie over here would be suspicious by itself."Elly shook her head. "No, not exactly the same thing. But sort of." She paused for a moment, trying to get her thoughts in order. "The biggest part of the inside-the-apartment date is that Lucy and Sei get the small room to themselves for 2 hours. Well, it's really hard for Lua to have phone dates with Jennie when she's got three roommates. Maybe you could let her have the small room for a couple of hours next time she has a phone date with Jennie?""That's a great idea," Suyeon said. "If Doyeon and Yoojung are on board-" she waited for confirmatory nods- "then I can make Lua a coupon good for 2 hours of privacy in the small room, whenever she needs it.""She can't use my bed, though," Yoojung said. She had a thing about germs, and if she even thought that someone other than her or Doyeon had been in her bed, it would require stripping the bed down and washing the sheets twice before she'd feel comfortable sleeping in it again.""She can use mine," Suyeon said, recognizing that Lua in Doyeon's bed would still trigger Yoojung's germaphobia. "And I'll ask her to bring her duvet to put over top of my sheets.""So it's settled then," Elly said, moving the conversation along before Yoojung had a chance to come up with more objections. "Suyeon, you get to work making a coupon for Lua - and make one for Rina as well. Doyeon, you can help me get the small room ready.""What about me?" Yoojung asked.'I need you to go to the grocery," Elly said, quickly scribbling down a list. Yoojung looked over the list. "We're having beef tonight?"Elly nodded. "After everything we've been through today, I think we all need a treat tonight." Elly turned on the rice cooker, gave the beef another stir, and leaned back against the counter, mentally double- and triple-checking everything. She and Doyeon had moved one of the rugs into the middle of the small room, put one of the end tables on it, then covered the table with a pillowcase for a tablecloth. Suyeon had even donated a couple of candles that Moonbin had given her ("I don't want them anymore, but the maknaes won't know or care where they're from.") to complete the restaurant ambience. Now the dinner was almost ready and the maknaes should be home from school right about. . .'Hi everyone! We're home! Where is everybody?" Lucy called out as she walked through the door."Oh good!" Suyeon said, as she, Yoojung, and Doyeon came out of the small room, carefully shutting the door behind them. "We need to have a band meeting. Unnies up front with me, maknaes on the couch."Elly gave the beef another stir, turned down the heat a little bit, and went out to join her other members in the living room. She noticed that the maknaes were sitting on the counch in order of age - which had the side effect of putting Lua and Rina in between Sei and Lucy - and that they all looked concerned."We're not in trouble, are we?" Lucy asked. "Because I didn't mean anything by throwing a fit this morning. I was just frustrated and needed to get it out. I'm sorry!""No, you're not in trouble," Doyeon said. 'In fact, Suyeon has some good news for you."Lucy looked cautiously hopeful as Suyeon began talking. "We recognized how difficult this situation is going to be for all of you, and we wanted to give you a reward for how well you're handling it - even if some of you did get a little overexcited this morning." Lucy giggled nervously. Sei reached across the back of the couch to try to pat her on the shoulder; when she couldn't quite reach, Rina did it for her."Anyway," Suyeon went on. "We tried to think of what you might like in this situation. And obviously that would be an end to the dating ban and an improvement in Korean attitudes toward homosexuality. But that's beyond our power, so instead we settled on privacy."She paused, during which the maknaes all looked puzzled."Lua and Rina," Suyeon said, pulling the two coupons out from behind her back, "you each get a coupon for 2 hours of privacy in the small room next time you have a phone date." She handed Lua and Rina their coupons. "And Sei and Lucy, you get a two-hour date in the small room that will be starting. . . ummm. . . soon." She looked down the line of unnies at Elly. "About how soon, Elly?"Just then the alarm on the rice cooker went off. "Right about now. Sei and Lucy, you head off to Chez Small Room. Your waitress will bring your food shortly." Lucy and Sei sat across the small table from each other, enjoying the quiet and the candlelight and the chance to be alone together, which was something they almost never got. Suddenly, the door opened and Yoojung came in, wearing a little apron and carrying their dinners. "Since my parents own a restaurant, I got nominated to be your waitress," she informed them, as she sat rice, braised beef, kimchi, and a couple of other side dishes in front of them. "Enjoy!" she said, as she stood up and left the room."This is so amazing," Lucy said, her eyes glistening. "They didn't have to do this.""I know," Sei said, reaching across the table to wipe away a stray tear that was rolling down Lucy's cheek. "We really do have the best unnies. Now let's eat!"Lucy put an indignant look on her face and put her hands on her hips. "How can you even think about food at a moment like this?""Because lunch was a long time ago," Sei said, as she picked up a piece of beef and started spreading ssam sauce on it, "and Manager-nim was watching every bit I took. And because you're just as hungry as I am!"Lucy nodded. "I am." She picked up her chopsticks, grabbed a bite of kimchi, and started crunching contentedly.The room was quite for a while after that, except for the sounds of their eating. When the food was all done, Lucy got up and moved toward one of the beds, beckoning Sei to follow her."Not there!" Sei said, pointing out a drawing of Gudetama, the lazy egg, saying "No!""Or here," Lucy said, turning to the bed on the other side of the room, which also had a "No!" gudetama. But on the bed at the end of the room, there was a picture of Gudetama saying "Yes - but don't make a mess!" Lucy moved the drawing aside, then laid down and raised her arms to Sei. Sei climbed into the bed and Lucy wrapped her arms around her.Lucy leaned down and kissed Sei on the forehead. "Do you remember when we went out for breakfast the night after the Christmas party?""Y- yes," Sei said, not really seeing where Lucy was going with this."And we texted Alice-sunbae for her advice about couples items, and one of her suggestions was couples items that don't look the same."Sei nodded.Lucy reached into her pocket and pulled out a keychain in the shape of a teacup, which she handed to Sei. "It's different from out Gudetama teacup keychains, but it's still got a teacup on it, so when we see it we'll know it's a couples item, even if nobody else does."Sei hugged Lucy tightly, then stretched up to kiss Lucy. "What did I ever do to deserve you?" she asked."I don't know - it must have been something pretty bad," Lucy said with a laugh.Sei's brows knitted in confusion. "What? No!"Lucy reached up and gently stroked Sei's face as she talked. "I know I'm not the easiest girlfriend in the world to deal with. I know I get all emotional and fly off the handle sometimes. I'm just glad you put up with it."Sei looked deep into Lucy's eyes. "I've wanted to be your girlfriend since before we debuted, and now that I am, the reality is better than anything I've ever dreamed."Lucy hugged Sei tightly, burying her face in her face. "I know I don't deserve you," she said quietly, "but now that I've got you, I don't ever want to let you go." When Lucy and Sei came out of the small bedroom at the end of their date, they looked happier and calmed than they had all day. Suyeon and Doyeon exchanged nods, knowing they had done a good thing.
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It had been almost a week since the gossip mag had linked a member of Weki Meki to K.Will. They all thought it had blown over until Manager-nim came and took Suyeon out of dance practice for a talk. None of the members knew what to make of this - whatever was going on, Manager-nim didn't look angry. In fact, if Suyeon hadn't known better, she'd have thought that Manager-nim actually looked happy. In a way, this was scarier than anger would have been.Manager-nim escorted Suyeon to her office, had Suyeon sit down in one of the guest chairs, and gave Suyeon a bottle of water from the mini fridge before sitting down in her own chair behind her desk."Suyeon-ah," Manager-nim said, her joy infusing her voice with an unusual warmth, "you were clever when I called you in the other day - you were able to slip one past me. I asked if any of your members were dating K.Will and you said 'no.' And you weren't lying because you were the one dating K.Will and I didn't ask about you."Suyeon's mouth dropped open in surprise. She stared silently as Manager-nim opened a file folder on the desk in front of her and held up a picture of Suyeon and K.Will walking down a street together. It was a fake, but a very good one - it probably could have fooled any of her members, and it made Suyeon doubt her own memories.After holding the photo silently for a moment, Manager-nim went on. "Fortunately, my bosses and K.Will's managers agree with me that you and K.Will make a good couple and that your relationshop will help both of your careers. That's why you and I are going to the airport this afternoon - so we can get some pictures of you greeting him upon his return from Japan, which will be published tomorrow as we announce your relationship to the world."Suyeon was opening and closing her mouth, but no words were coming out. She didn't have any idea what she'd say about this ridiculous situation, anyway, so it was probably a good think that she was temporarily speechless.Manager-nim was still talking ."If it had been any other member of Weki Meki, that girl would have been given an opportunity to resign from the group, but my bosses agree with me that you're mature enough to handle this situation. Congratulations."Suyeon stalled for time by taking a drink of water. Fortunately, the right words came to her as she drank. "Thank you, Manager-nim! I was afraid I would have to break up with him. Thank you for your trust in me, and I apologize for breaking the rules!" She stood up and bowed to Manager-nim."Fortunately," Manager-nim said with a chuckle, "it worked out to your advantage this time, but don't make a habit of it."Manager-nim stood up and gathered her coat and purse. "Let's go," she said. "We've got just enough to time to pass by your apartment so you can shower and dress for the airport." Fifteen minutes later, Suyeon was dressed in a black turtleneck, jeans, and a pair of Doyeon's black boots, riding shotgun in the van on her way to meet her "boyfriend" at the airport. While Manager-nim's attention was occupied by the afternoon traffic, Suyeon pulled out her phone and texted Elly about the situation, asking her to pass the word on to K.Will so he'd be ready to play his part. Elly responded saying she'd send the text, but reminded Suyeon that K.Will would have to have his phone turned off until the plane landed. By this time, Manager-nim was pulling the van into the parking garage at Incheon International Airport. After shutting off the van, Manager-nim reached into her briefcase and pulled out a piece of cardboard, which she handed to Suyeon. Suyeon turned it over and saw that it was a handmade-looking sign with K.Will's name and a scattering of hearts and flowers. "It looks like exactly the sort of thing that I'd make if I was meeting my boyfriend at the airport," Suyeon thought to herself, realizing that it was supposed to look like that. Manager-nim led Suyeon through the airport until she was positioned just outside the customs checkpoint that K.Will would have to go through. They were met there by an older man who was introduced as one of K.Will's managers, Mr. Park, as well as by a pair of photographers, one from each agency. After they put Suyeon into position, the two managers faded into the background as the photographers started taking pictures of her as she waited. Soon - certainly before Suyeon was ready for it - she saw K.Will come through the express customs line, followed by a trio of men who could have been bodyguards or managers or both. As soon as he spotted her, he stopped walking, put down his suitcase, and held his arms out to her. Knowing what her part as devoted girlfriend entailed, she ran and jumped into his arms. He scooped her up in a hug that lifted her off her feet, whispering in her ear 'I got Elly's texts." When he put her down, she smiled up at him and blushed. He took her hand in his, grabbed the handle of his suitcase with his other hand, and started walking toward the exit of the airport. Throughout all of this, the photographers swarmed around them and took a constant stream of pictures. They reached the exit in just a few minutes. Suyeon wondered what was to happen next, but she needn't have worried, the managers had everything figured out. No sooner had they exited the airport than a black Mercedes pulled up in front of them. The driver got out and opened the door for them. K.Will helped Suyeon into the back seat of the car, then exchanged a fist bump with the driver as he climbed in after her.When the driver got in, K.Will said to him "I don't believe we've met. Are you new?"The driver shook his head as he pulled the car away from the curb. "I've worked for Starship for several years, but this is the first time I've been fortunate enough to be assigned to drive you."K.Will laughed. "I don't know that I'd exactly call it fortunate - today promises to be a rather boring day. I just need you to take me to drop Ms. Ji off at her dormitory, then I'll need you take me to my apartment. Do you know where the Fantagio dormity is?"The driver shook his head. "I don't, but I'm sure the computer will. Now, unless you object I'll put the divider up so you don't have to listen to me talking to the computer.""That'll be fine," K.Will said with a smile. "It was nice to meet you."Once the divider was up, they had the illusion of privacy, but K.Will briefly put his finger to his lips, letting her know that it was just that - an illusion. This driver was new, and they had no way of knowing if he would report what they said to the managers or not. To keep safe, they kept the conversation to neutral topics - how had his trip been, what had she been doing while he was gone, how were her members? She told him excitedly that they were going to have a comeback soon, which he responded that he was looking forward to it. They were just starting to run low on conversation topics when the car pulled up in front of the Fantagio dormitory."Just wait here," K.Will said to the driver. "I've got to walk Ms. Ji back to her apartment, then I'll be ready to go home." As they walked up to the dormitory, Suyeon's hand in his, she said "My member Elly has said she'd like to meet you. Would you have time for that?"K.Will, recognizing that there were likely to be security systems active at the dorm, nodded and played along. "Of course," he said. "I've heard so much about your members; I'd like to meet them all."'"I'm sure you're tired from your flight," Suyeon said, "so I won't ask you to meet them all today, but Elly will be so pleased to get to meet you."By this time they were at the door of Weki Meki's apartment. Suyeon unlocked the door, then turned to K.Will and said "I'll be right back." She went inside and left him standing in the hall, only to return a few moments later with Elly. She "introduced" the two of them. They chatted briefly, too quietly for even Suyeon to hear what they were saying, then he took her hand, kissed it, and left, turning once he was a few steps away to wave at them and say "I'll see you later." After dinner, Suyeon and Elly sat on Elly's bed while Suyeon filled her on everything that had happned since Manager-nim had taken her from the lunch room."So you're mature enough to date K.Will but I'm not! Ooooh! She makes me so mad sometimes!" Elly noticed she had clenched her fists; she unclenched and made a conscious effort to calm down.Suyeon reached out and took Elly's hand to try to calm her down. "I'm really sorry about this. You know I never asked for this. I'll broke up with him as soon as I can."Elly shook her head. "No, don't do that. As long as you're 'dating' him, it'll give him a reason to be around Weki Meki, and maybe we can find some way to turn some of that into me getting to spend some extra time with him.""If you say so," Suyeon says. "But just remember that I'm going to have to do public appearances with him, and the more people get used to seeing me with him, the more they're going to get used to him and me being a couple and the harder it'll be for you to have a relationship with him once our dating ban is lifted.""We've still got 2 years of dating ban, except for your apparent exception." Elly said bitterly. "I'll talk to K.Will and he and I will figure out if and when you two need to break up. In the meantime, you just concentrate on being the best girlfriend you can for him." She smiled wanly. "You might as well enjoy it while you can - while you're dating K,Will, you can't date anyone else."The stunned expression on Suyeon's face showed that she obviously hadn't had time to think of that aspect of things yet."Looks like your love life's being held hostage just as much as mine as," Elly said with a grim smirk.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Manager-nim came into the practice room while Weki Meki were working on a new song. Since last time she had interrupted their practice had been to break the news that she'd "discovered" that Suyeon and K.Will were dating, they tried to be prepared for anything when she stopped their backing track and had them gather around her.'As I'm sure you know," Manager-nim began, "Twice will be debuting their new film this weekend. I just got off the phone with one of their managers, who informed me that Jihyo wants you all to be her guests at the premiere. Of course I said you'd be there. So between now and then you've all giot stylist appointments, and Elly, Lua, Rina, and Lucy all have supplementary media training." She handed them cards with the times of their appointments, then turned to leave. Just as she reached the door, she turned back to them, "I know you girls don't like to think of your friendships this way, but being friends with Twice could be a huge boost for your careers. I want you to do everything in your power to make Jihyo glad that she invited you." And with those parting words, she turned to leave."Jihyo invited us,": Yoojung said with a grin, "and I'm sure that Jeongyeon had nothing to do with it." She winked at Rina, who blushed."But why do we have to do supplementary media training?" Lua whined."Because you tend to say the first thing that comes into your head, even if it's not the appropriate thing," Elly said sticking out her tongue at Lua."Well what about you?" Lua retorted."I get overwhelmed and mumble," Elly responded with a shrug. "Rina tends to talk too much and too loudly, and Lucy's being sent just because she's the maknae.""I talk too much?" Rina protested, a bit louder than was strictly necessary. "I don't talk too much! I just think of good things to say and I want to be sure to say them, and I just. . ." She trailed off upon seeing her seniors' expression. "Really?" She asked quietly. "I talk too much?"Yoojung held up her hand with her thumb and index finger nearly touching. "A little bit." Suyeon nodded in agreement."At least you all have reasons for going," Lucy said. "I'm just being sent because I'm the youngest." She began to pout.Sei took Lucy's card from her and looked at it. "It's only for half an hour, you big baby," she teased. "And when you're done, I'll be waiting outside for you with a bubble tea.""Well, I guess that'll be okay," Lucy said with a smile as she took her card back and put her arm around Sei's shoulders."Okay, well, all these things don't start until tomorrow. In the meantime, this song's not gonna learn itself," Suyeon said, getting ready to turn the backing track back on."Do we have to do it right now?" Rina asked.Suyeon nodded. "We have to. Our next comeback is coming up soon and we're not ready yet. Besides, you'll have plenty of time for texting when we go back to the dorm after practice." Rina blushed at this, but assumed her place for the choreography.Suyeon started the click track, then rushed to be in her position before the music started. The weekend finally arrived, and all the preparations had been completed. Weki Meki were standing in the lobby of their dorm, waiting for the limousine that was going to take them to the premiere."I love your hair," Lucy said to Sei as she ran her fingers through it. The stylists had dyed Sei's hair a glossy black with deep blue highlights. It made her look sultry and mysterious, and Lucy was quite taken with the look."You all look great," Suyeon said. Suyeon's hair was a deep red, almost crimson. Once this was paired with the red strapless dress the stylists had put her in, Doyeon started teasing her, calling her Jessica Rabbit. Just then Suyeon's phone beeped. She took it out of the tiny clutch she was carrying and looked at the screen. "K.Will's going to be there. Not just for the premiere - he's one of Momo's special guests, so he's going to be at the VIP afterparty as well.""Ah yes," Elly said with an arched eyebrow. "Suyeon and K.Will have their first public event as boyfriend and girlfriend.""Oh, I'm sure that once the photographers have gotten their pics and been shooed out of the building, he'll want to talk with all my members," Suyeon said, aiming a wink at Elly.Rina was scrolling through pictures on her phone. "The red carpet photos are already being released - Twice just walked the red carpet. Look at this beautiful dress Jeongyeon is wearing! And look how much she grew out her hair!"They all had to agree that Jeongyeon looked great in her blue sequined dress with her now longer hair dyed honey blonde. Just then their limo arrived. They all piled in the back and enjoyed their ride to the theater where Twice was hosting their premiere. Once thy arrived, they were ushered out of their limo into a waiting area until it was their turn to walk the red carpet. They didn't have to wait long - after a few minutes, they were told they could start making their way down the red carpet. Suyeon went first, then the others followed in order of age, until it was Sei's turn - Sei grabbed Lucy's hand and walked out onto the red carpet with her. They performed some skinships for the cameras, Sei's black hair providing a vivid contrast to Lucy's platinum blonde bob. When they reached the other end of the carpet, Suyeon was waiting for them. They could tell from Suyeon's eyes that she was furious and only holding herself in by a supreme effort of will. She grabbed Sei's arm so that she could talk privately to her as they walked to Weki Meki's table."What the hell was that?" Suyeon asked."I just thought-" Sei began, only to have Suyeon cut her off."I know what you thought," Suyeon said through gritted teeth. "You're playing with fire, and we're all going to be damned lucky if you don't get burned. We'll be talking about this more once we get back to the apartment."By this time they had reached their table. Sei waited for Suyeon to sit down, making it look like she was being attentive to her senior when actually her aim was to make sure she took a seat as far from Suyeon as possible. Lucy sat down between Sei and Suyeon. She reached out for Sei's hand under the table and squeezed it reassuring. Sei looked at her and blinked, doing her best not to cry. Fortunately, the lights went down almost immediately after Weki Meki were seated, so no one was able to see Sei discretely wipe away tears a couple of times.The documentary was great - the filmmakers had really done a great job of capturing Twice. After the movie ended, the entire audience stood up and clapped until their hands were sore. They Twice came out and everyone sat down for the Q and A session. After the Q and A session, during which Rina couldn't take her eyes of Jeongyeon. Finally, it was time for the VIP afterparty. The audience members who weren't invited filed out and the VIPs made their way to the party room. The members of Weki Meki made sure that the first thing they did was seek out Jihyo and thank her for inviting them. As they finished this, K.Will came up and swept Suyeon up in a hug. Fortunately, she remembered that she was supposed to be dating him and so made a show of being happy to see him. Suyeon then made a show of introducing him to all her members. He took advantage of this to shower a little attention of Elly, who had been starting to look a little green about the attention he was paying to Suyeon. Then Weki Meki split up to go talk to everyone else at the party. Sei and Lucy were walking side by side when suddenly Doyeon came up and saying "Lucy! There's someone I want to you to meet" led Lucy off one way while Yoojung shepherded Sei off in the other direction. "I managed to get Suyeon pretty much calmed down," Yoojung said, "but you and Lucy need to spend as much time apart as possible during the party.""Thank you, unnie," Sei said quietly. Just then Yoojung spotted Jeon Somi and introduced them. They all talked together for a few minutes, but when Yoojung and Somi started talking about the other I.O.I members, Sei excused herself and went to say hello to the members of Astro that she saw - she was sure that if Suyeon saw her properly showing respect to their seniors, it would go some way toward getting back into her good graces. After talking to Astro, Rina pulled her aside and asked her to stand with her when she talked to Yeongyeon so it didn't look like they were a couple. While she was doing this, Lua brought her a glass of champagne and then disappeared. Sei wasn't sure that having the champagne would be the best idea with Suyeon already mad at her, but she didn't have anything else to do with this glass, so she sipped it slowly as the evening went on. Toward the end of the party, Suyeon called her over so that she could dance with K.Will so it wouldn't look suspicious when Elly danced with K.Will - it'd just like he was doing Suyeon a favor by making sure her members had a good time. As she danced with K.Will, they talked."Is Suyeon still mad at me?" she asked.He nodded. "I tried telling her it was no big deal, but I'm afraid you're still going to get fussed at when you get home."She smiled up at him. "Thank you for trying to make things better. I was just thinking it'd be great to have pictures of me and Lucy together on the red carpet." She felt herself starting tear up again.K.Will pulled a handkerchief out of his suit pocket and gave it to her to wipe her eyes with. "I think it was a fine idea, and I bet the pictures out great. Next time, though, talk to Suyeon beforehand so she can have all of you come out in pairs."Sei sniffled. She tried to give the handkerchief back to him, but he curled her fingers around it and told her to keep it. "That sounds like a good idea, oppa. Thank you for the advice."He smiled at her. "It's gonna be okay," he said, "Suyeon can't stay mad forever."Just then the song ended, and he led her back to the edge of the dance floor so he could say good-bye to her and begin his dance with Elly. Sei found herself standing with Suyeon on the sideline of the dance floor."It's really a wonderful party," Sei said.Suyeon nodded. "It is." Her words were clipped, sharp, as if she was biting them off. "Are you still mad at me?" Sei asked.Before Suyeon had a chance to answer, Lucy wandered over and joined them. Suyeon looked from Lucy to Sei and then back again. "One of you needs to walk away," she said. "I don't want to see the two of you together for the rest of the night.""That won't look suspicious, Lucy and me avoiding each other," Sei said. Then she turned and walked away. She saw Nara, who had been their senior in Hellovenus until her contract ended, and went to talk with her. When they got back to the dorm, as soon as the apartment door was closed Suyeon snapped "Sei, Lucy. I need to talk to you in the small bedroom right now."Sei didn't know which was worse - Suyeon snapping at her or the pitying looks she was getting from the other memberrs as she and Lucy made their walk of shame, Suyeon stalking along behind them.Once they were all in the small room, Suyeon closed the door behind them and then pointed to her bed. "Sit down," she said. Seeing the sparks flashing in her eyes, Sei and Lucy were too scared not to obey."What were you even thinking?" Suyeon asked, looming over them. "After all the troubles we've had, and all the instructions not to do anything couple-y, how could you do that?"'I just thought-" Sei began, but Suyeon cut her off."You thought? Really? I don't think so." Suyeon paced back and forth in front of them. "And Doyeon and Yoojung, who are just as much a couple as you two but didn't pull a stunt like that, defended you. Elly defended you. Even K.Will defended you!"Lucy considered that maybe if this many people were defending her and Sei, that maybe that meant Suyeon was in the wrong here, but she knew better than to say anything.Suyeon stook staring at them for the better part of a minute, apparently at a loss for words. "We'll have to wait and see what the gossip websites say in the morning, and whether Manager-nim takes me aside to hassle me about it - she won't talk to you, you know; she'll come hassle me, even though I didn't do anything wrong.""I'm sorry, Suyeon," Lucy said, her bottom lip quivering. "We didn't mean any harm."Suyeon sighed. "I know you didn't. I know that. But you might have done harm anyway, I don't know." She turned and looked away from them. "Just go to bed," she said finally. "I hope nothing bad comes of this. We've got too much going on already without having to put out fires where you two are concerned."As Sei and Lucy left the small room, Lucy could she Suyeon's shoulders shaking, as apparently she was crying. She let go of Sei's hand and went and gave Suyeon a hug.""I'm really sorry, Suyeon-unnie," she said. "I didn't mean to cause trouble for you."Suyeon sniffled. "Thank you, Lucy. Now just go to bed. Hopefully everything will be okay in the morning."
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Weki Meki had the day after the Twice premiere off. Sei and Lucy spent the morning scanning all the gossip magazine websites, hoping they didn't find anything bad about their red carpet appearance."Well, that's something," Sei said with a sigh.Lucy leaned over and gave Sei a hug. "Apparently we dodged a bullet this time," she said.Sei nodded. "Now we've just got to wait for Suyeon to calm down." She got up and went to look out the window. "It's a beautiful day today. I wish we could go for a walk in the park."Lucy came up behind her and caught her up in a hug. "You know Suyeon would never allow that, even if we hadn't done the red carpet thing last night - we're not supposed to be doing anything couple-y."Sei leaned back into Lucy's hug. "I know. And I understand why. But that doesn't mean I don't hate it."Just then Suyeon came out of the small bedroom. Her eyes were red - apparently she'd cried for quite a while before going to sleep the night before."Good morning, unnie," Sei said quietly, disentangling herself from Lucy's arms as inconspicuously as she could.Suyeon stopped and looked at her. "Good morning," she said quietly. "Did you check the gossip sites this morning? I mean, I'm assuming there's nothing because Manager-nim hasn't called me, but I still want to be sure."Lucy came to stand by Sei. "We checked all the sites. The only member of Weki Meki who got pictures published from last night was you. Several sites posted red carpet pictures of you, plus one posted a picture of you hugging K.Will when we first got to the after-party and another had two really good pictures of you and K.Will dancing." She pulled up a picture on her phone and held it out for Suyeon to see.Suyeon looked at the picture on Lucy's phone and scowled. "You do remember that K.Will and I aren't actually a couple, don't you?"Lucy nodded silently as she let her arm drop back to her side. "I know," Lucy said, "but it was just such a pretty picture. . ."Suyeon rolled her eyes. "Whatever," she said as she walked past them to the kitchen.After a couple of minutes, Sei followed Suyeon into the kitchen. "Unnie, there's no need for you to be mean to Lucy like that. She's just trying to make the best of the situation."Suyeon looked up from the tangerine she was peeling. "I know she is," Suyeon said, "and I'll apologize to her after I've had breakfast. I just don't know how to deal with this whole situation. I've got to pretend to be in a relationship I'm not in, and every other member is having to pretend not to be in the relationship they're in."Sei sat down across the table from Suyeon. "At least it's not one of the gay members having to pretend to be in a relationship with K.Will," she said. Her grin faded from her face when Suyeon looked up at her."I think that might have been better," Suyeon said. "If it had been, say, Doyeon pretending to be dating K.Will, maybe Elly wouldn't be so cross about it.""Why don't you just break up with him?" Sei asked.Suyeon popped a piece of tangerine into her mouth, chewed and swallowed it before she answered. "I already suggested that. He and Elly think it's not the right time for me to break up with him yet. I think it's better to end it before the fans get too used to the idea, especially since he's going to be going public with his relationship with Elly once our dating ban has lifted, but they think it would look bad if he and I split up too soon." Suyeon ate another piece of tangerine. "Nope, I'm stuck dating K.Will for at least 6 months, which means for at least 6 months, I can't date anyone else.""Oh." Sei's face fell. "I'm sorry unnie. I didn't know all of that." She got up to leave."Sei," Suyeon said, stopping the other girl in her tracks. "I'm sorry I was bitchy with you and Lucy this morning. And I'll apologize to Lucy in just a minute."Sei walked around the table and gave Suyeon a hug. "It's okay, unnie. We'd just been thinking about how the situation with K.Will was affecting us and how it was affecting Elly and I never really stopped to think about how it's affecting you."Suyeon smiled weakly up at Sei. "Thank you," she said, tears welling up in her eyes. Before Sei had a chance to realize what was happening, Suyeon had grabbed her in a hug and was soaking her shirt with tears. Looking down, she stroked Suyeon's hair awkwardly and wished this whole situation would go away. Doyeon and Lua were down in the laundry room, waiting for the dryers to finish. "I just can't believe Suyeon bit Lucy and Sei's heads off like that last night," Lua was saying.Doyeon nodded. "She's really on edge right now. Having to go public with her relationship with K.Will seems to be really getting to her."Lua looked around to be sure there was no one else in the laundry room. "Elly's not handling it well either," she said.Doyeon nodded. "Imagine how you'd feel if you-know-who had to pretend to be in a relationship with someone else - let's say Rina, for this example - and because it's one of your bandmates, they two of them are always together around you and you have to pretend that you're happy for them."Lua shook her head. "I couldn't do it. I'd snap."Doyeon nodded. "And then you'd get kicked out of Weki Meki, and so would Rina. And then the managers might decide that it would be better to just break up Weki Meki rather than try to get the Ki-Lings to accept a 6-member band."Lua looked horrified. "And since it's the two unnies, they'd be more likely to do that." She sat quietly for a moment. "Is there anything we can do to try to make things better?"Doyeon shook her head. "Not really. All we can do is wait and try to not to give Suyeon any reason to be mad at us."Just then Lua's phone beeped. She pulled it out of her pocket and looked at it. "It's you-know-who," she said, turning slightly away from Doyeon."Okay, you get that," Doyeon said. "The dryers are almost finished, so I'll take your clothes upstairs when I take mine.""Thanks Doyeon," Lua said. She got up and walked out of the laundry room.Doyeon leaned forward and cradled her head in her hands. "It'll be a miracle if we all make it through this," she said to herself. Elly hung up her phone as she walked out of the big bedroom."I bet I can guess who you were talking to," Suyeon said.Elly nodded. "He said last night went great."Suyeon leaned back on the couch. "At least someone thinks so," she said.Elly came and sat down next to Suyeon. "I know it's hard," she said, taking Suyeon's hand, "but you can do it. It's just for a few months."Suyeon winced. "Don't remind me. At this point, it's going to take all I can do to get through today."Elly put her arm around Suyeon. "I'm sure it's hard," she said. "But I have confidence in you."Suyeon leaned on Elly's shoulder. "At least one of us does. I'm snapping at the maknaes. I'm staying up all night crying. I don't know how I can keep this up for months.""It'll get easier," Elly said.Suyeon looked up at Elly. "You're being awfully kind to the woman who's dating your boyfriend.""Who's being forced to pretend to date my boyfriend," Elly said, reaching up and stroking Suyeon's cheek. "Those few extra words make all the difference. Fantagio has us in a horrible position, that no one should be in, but since this is the price we have to pay to be Weki Meki, well. . ." She shrugged. "We just roll with it as best we can."Suyeon closed her eyes. "I suppose I should apologize to Sei and Lucy," she said with a sigh."That would be a good start," Elly agreed. "By the way, did you see the pictures of the two of them on the red carpet? They really came out great!" Suyeon sat up as Elly leaned forward to get her phone. She swiped through a couple of pictures, then held it out for Suyeon to see."Wow!" Suyeon said, her eyes getting huge. "They look great!"Just then the apartment door opened. Sei, Lucy, Rina, and Yoojung came in, sipping bubble tea."Who looks great?" Yoojung asked."Sei and Lucy," Suyeon said, holding Elly's phone out so that Yoojung could see the picture. Just then she happened to glance over at Lucy and Sei, who looked distinctly uncomfortable, as if they wished they could melt into the floor. "I'm really sorry about last night," Suyeon said. "I'm just really stressed about this whole thing, and I dont always handle it well."Elly stood up and gestured for Sei and Lucy to go sit on the counch with Suyeon. Sei sat down on one side of Suyeon and Lucy sat down on the other. "We can get through this," Lucy said."We just can't let it make us fight with each other," Sei added.Suyeon nodded. "So you forgive me for last night?"Lucy nodded. "Of course we do. It was just really unpleasant at the time, you know?"Suyeon ndoded. "I'm really sorry about that. I'll try to do better next time.""How much longer do you have to date K.Will?" Sei asked."Well," Suyeon said. "The last time Elly and I talked about it, we were looking at 3 or 4 months.""Ummmm. . ." Elly said. "Actually, when he and I were talking just now, he pointed out that 3 or 4 months from now would be just before Chuseok. You can't break up with him right before Chuseok. You'll need to wait at least 3 weeks after the holiday.""So, five months?" Suyeon asked.Elly nodded. "I'm not any happier about it than you are," she said, "but that's what we've got to do to get you and him out of this 'relationship' without either one of you looking bad.""I know," Suyeon said. "It's just, I was looking forward to breaking up with him in 3 months and getting my life back again.""Five months will fly by," Elly said. "We'll probably have two comebacks between now and then, so that'll keep you pretty busy.""And besides," Lucy said, "K.Will-oppa's really nice. It's not like you're having to pretend to date someone awful."Just then Suyeon's phone chimed. She picked it up and read the screen. "It's a text from K.Will," she said. "He says 'It was nice meeting all your members last night, but hopefully soon we can have some time just the two of us.'" Suyeon looked at Elly. "What's that about?""He thinks someone's hacked his text messages," Elly said, "so he's going to have to text you more than usual so things won't look suspicious."Suyeon held her phone out to Elly. "Why don't you just take my phone, then? That way it'll look like he's texting his girlfriend and she's texting back."Elly held up her hands. "Nope, can't do that. Do you realize how obsessive the Ki-Lings are? They know exactly what kind of phone each of us has, so they'd notice if I was constantly texting on your phone.""The Ki-Lings know what kind of phones we have?" Suyeon seemed stunned by this information.Elly nodded. "They've got websites where they have profiles of all of us with everything we've ever said in interviews or at fansigns or anything.""Oh." Suyeon got quiet.Sei nudged Suyeon. "You need to text K.Will-oppa back."Suyeon picked up the phone and got ready to type. She looked at Elly. "What should I type?"Elly shook her head. "Nope, you've got to do it in your own words.""OK," Suyeon said and started typing."And remember," Elly said, "it's just until a few weeks after Chuseok."
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Weki Meki were crowded in the backstage area, along with all the other bands promoting on Inkigayo that day. They were standing next to TXT, and Suyeon couldn't help overhearing a couple of the TXT members talking. As they were riding in the van back to the dorm, Suyeon told Elly what she had overheard. "Soobin and Beomgyu were talking, and I guess they thought we wouldn't hear them, because they were talking about us. Beomgyu asked Soobin 'If you could date any member of Weki Meki, who would you pick?' and Soobin's response was 'Suyeon, absolutely, no question.'""That should make you feel good," Elly said. "Why do you seem distressed by this?""Because of the next thing Beomgyu said: 'Yeah, but she's dating K.Will, so you're just out of luck - no one's got enough game to steal a girlfriend from K.Will.'""He's right, you know," Elly said. Suddenly, Suyeon's eyes lit up and her whole face brightened as she smiled. "That's it!""What's it?" Elly asked cautiously."If someone were to steal me away from K.Will, he'd get all kinds of sympathy points for being the dumpee, everyone except the K.Will stans would forgive me, because I'd be ending up with someone closer to my own age, and you'd get to play the heroine by comforting him in his hour of need."Elly paused for a moment as she tried to take in all of this. Finally she started shaking her head. "No, Suyeon, no. It would never work. It's a bad plan."Suyeon looked injured. "What's wrong with it?"Elly started counting on her fingers. "One: No guy's even gonna try to steal you away from K.Will. Two: You're vastly underestimating the amount of hate you'd get from the K.Will stans. Three: Manager-nim has already said she wouldn't be okay with me dating K.Will. Four. . . do I need to go on?"Suyeon crossed her arms and flounced back in her seat, pouting. "Fine. Will you at least run it by K.Will and see what he says?"Recognizing that there was only one way she was going to get any peace where this plan is concerned, Elly agreed to discuss it with K.Will. Meanwhile, on the other side of the van, Rina and Lua were talking. "You seem really down," Rina was saying. "What's wrong?"Lua sighed and slouched down further in her seat. "I just miss Jennie. I haven't seen her for a couple of months now - she wasn't even at the Twice premiere a couple of weeks ago - and now that Blackpink have a big song with Lady Gaga, there's a good chance they'll be going on a world tour, so that'll mean a couple more months until I get to see her again."Rina leaned over and Lua a hug. "I'm sorry you're having such a hard time right now. Just try to keep your spirits up, and who knows what'll happen."Lua sighed and looked out the window, where it had just started raining. "I hope you're right," she said. When they got back to the dorm, everyone scattered as much as they could, trying to do their own thing. Doyeon noticed that Elly was smiling and hugging her phone as she went off to her room."What's got you so happy tonight?"she asked. Elly stopped and turned to face her. "K.Will managed to slip away from his minders for long enough to buy a burner phone today, so tonight we'll get to have a good long talk."Doyeon winked. "Oh yeah. I know what kind of talk you're interested in."Elly brought here eyebrows together and did her best to look injured. "That's not all we talk about." Then her good spirits won out. "But it is one of the things we talk about," she said with a wink, then turned and skipped off to her bed.Yoojung came up from behind Doyeon and caught her up in a hug. "Elly seems to be doing well," she said.Doyeon turned in Yoojung's arms and returned the hug. "K.Will was finally able to get his hands on a burner phone, so he and Elly can text like usual.""That's good," Yoojung said. "Now all we have to do is deal with Suyeon.""What's going on with Suyeon?" Doyeon asked. "Besides the obvious."Yoojung looked around to be sure Suyeon wasn't around them. "Elly told me that Suyeon has come up with a plan for someone to steal her away from K.Will, so that then she'll be free to date whoever she wasn't and K.Will will be free to date Elly.""That's a horrible plan," Doyeon said, her shock written all over her face."I know," Yoojung said. "I told Elly-""First of all," Doyeon went on, as if Yoojung had never spoken, "what guy out there is going to think he's capable of stealing K.Will's girlfriend? And what about the K.Will stans? And what about Manager-nim? And what about-" Doyeon was brought up short by Yoojung placed her finger across her lips."You're preaching to the choir here," Yoojung said. "You don't have to convince me that it's a bad plan. But someone has to convince Suyeon of it." The next morning, when Weki Meki were waiting outside for the van to pick them up and take them to the day's events, Elly sidled up next to Suyeon. "So, did K.Will text you last night?"Suyeon rolled her eyes. "You know he did, and you know what he said.""And yet you still look unconvinced," Elly said."No, I'm convinced," Suyeon said. "I wish there was some way to make this work, but there's not. Like K.Will said, any guy older than me, no one would believe he'd try, and any guy younger than me, no one would believe that he'd succeed. I just wish there was some other way. The next 17 weeks are going to seem like the longest 17 weeks of my life."Elly laughed. "You're still counting in weeks? I'd have figured you'd have it down to exactly how many days by this point."Suyeon joined in with Elly's laughter. "Technically it's 17 weeks and 4 days, so 123 days. I just didn't want to hurt your feelings by acting too eager to break up with your boyfriend."Elly clapped Suyeon on the shoulder. "Believe me," she said, "you're not half as eager to break up with him and I am to have you break up with him."Suyeon nodded. "Okay - as long as we're on the same page."Just then the van pulled up and they all climbed in. All their conversations stopped as Manager-nim read them the day's schedule. "First you've got an appearance at a music shop, then you're going to be making sandwiches for your fans. They you get a short break for lunch, then you've got 2 radio appearances, then you go back to your apartment for dinner and the evening off."Lucy danced in her seat. "Yay! Evening off!""Enjoy it while you can," Manager-nim said with a smile. "Tomorrow you've got activities from early morning to late at night." The radio interviews went pretty much as expected - the usual round of questions, plus extra questions for Suyeon about K.Will. Fortunately, she, K.Will, and Elly had worked out all the answers to the "how did you meet? where was your first date?" sort of questions that interviewers ask. They were surprised, though, when the interviewer turned to Elly and said "Now that Suyeon's found a boyfriend, it looks like you'll be the next member of Weki Meki to have their dating ban lifted. So tell me: What are you looking for in a guy?"Fortunately, even while being surprised, Elly kept her wits about her. "I haven't really thought about it much - I've been focusing on Weki Meki being the best group that we can be for our fans. I just hope that when I do find a guy, I find someone as great at Suyeon-unnie did.""Well, not all guys are K.Will," said the interviewer, "but hopefully there's someone just as good out there for you. And that's all the time we have for today. Thanks for coming to talk with us, Weki Meki, and stay tuned for their new song after this quick commercial break.When they got back to the dorm, Rina headed to the kitchen to start fixing dinner. Suyeon stopped her. "No need for that," Suyeon said. Then, speaking a little louder, Suyeon said "Attention everyone! I've decided to order chicken and beer for dinner tonight!"There was general rejoicing at this, and for a change everyone stayed in the common room rather than splitting up around the apartment."So what's the special occasion?" Doyeon asked as she plopped down on the couch next to Suyeon.Suyeon shrugged. "We had a long day today, and tomorrow's going to be even longer, and we've all been under a lot of stress, so I figured we could all use a little treat tonight.Yoojung sat on the arm of the sofa, then slid down into Doyeon's lap. "Well, whatever the reason, I think it sounds like a great idea."Just then there was a knock at the door. Sei and Lucy were sitting closest to the door, so they got up and dealt with the deliveryman. "Chicken and beer!" Lucy called out as she and Sei carried the dinner to the table."I only ordered one beer each, because we've got to get up early tomorrow and we don't need anyone with a hangover," Suyeon said, as she opened her beer and too a sip."Party-pooper!" Doyeon responded.Suyeon looked across the table at Doyeon. "After we finish this round of promotions, we can have a party and if you guys want to get totally wasted, you're welcome to it. But in the meantime, we've all got to behave."Doyeon raised her hand. "I need witnesses!" she called out. "Everyone who just heard Suyeon say we can have a party, raise your hand!" Every hand at the table went up."Well, now I now how to motivate all of you!" Suyeon said with a laugh."Maybe a party with guests?" Rina asked.Suyeon raised an eyebrow at her. "Don't push your luck."
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The next day's promotions went well, as did promotions on the day after. Then, the following day everyone but Lucy had a day off: Lucy had to take her final exams at school."Do we get to have that party today?" Rina asked.Suyeon shook her head. 'We've got to be ready to go again tomorrow. Plus, Lucy's not going to feel like doing anything but sleeping once she finishes her finals - you remember what they're like."Rina shuddered. "I still have nightmares."Just then Sei passed through on her way to the kitchen. "What's going on?" Suyeon asked."I'm baking Lucy a cake, to celebrate her finishing her finals," Sei responded as she opened the pantry and started taking out ingredients."Shouldn't you wait until you're sure that she passes before you do that?" Suyeon asked.Sei shook her head, never looking up from trying to find the recipe for cake on her phone. "I can bake another one then, but I want this just to celebrate her taking the tests.""That makes sense," Suyeon said with a nod. "And it's not like you can take her out somewhere to celebrate.""Exactly," Sei said as she opened the flour, scattering white powder all over the counters."Well, if you need help, just give me a yell," Suyeon said. "I'll be watching TV. Rina, you coming?"But Rina had already pulled out her phone and was engrossed in texting. Suyeon smiled and left the room. Elly looked up from her phone as Lua came into the bedroom. "What's going on?" she asked.Lua shrugged and flopped down on her bed. "Just waiting for the sun to rise in America so I can text Jennie."Elly nodded in sympathy. "Foreign tours are the worst.""It'd probably be different if we were the ones on a foreign tour," Lua said.Elly scoffed. "As if FanMu would pay for that!""We can still hope," Lua said. "I'd love a chance to perform for our international Ki-lings."Elly nodded. "Yeah, that would be nice. But I'm not holding my breath.""Anyway," Lua said, "I wasn't coming to talk to you about FanMu's shortcomings. I came to get your advice."Elly leaned forward. "Okay. What's up?"Lua rolled over and held her phone out to Elly. There was a picture of Blackpink's Jennie and some blonde girl on the screen. "Every picture of Jennie for the last three days," Lua said, "this girl has been in the picture with her." She handed Elly her phone and Elly started scrolling back through pictures of Jennie. Sure enough, wherever Jennie was, the blonde was somewhere near her."You're not worried, are you?" Elly asked.'I wasn't at first," Lua said, "but it's been three days and she's still there!"Elly shook her head. "There's got to be some explanation. I can't imagine Jennie cheating on you - she loves you so much!""That's what I thought," Lua said, "but now I'm starting to doubt everything.""Are you thinking of trying to bring this up with Jennie?" Elly asked."Do you think I should?" Lua responded. "I'm just. . . I don't trust my judgment here.""I'm not going to tell you what to do," Elly said, "but if you do dedide to talk to her about it, you've got to be very careful not to sound like you're accusing her.""So no asking 'Who's the blonde skank you're hanging out with?' - I'd figured that much out on my own. But what should I say?"Elly was silent for a long moment. "Is it okay if I talk with Alice-sunbae about this?" she finally asked. "I've got some ideas, but I'd like to get her input before I tell you anything.""That'd be great," Lua said. "Right now I'm just going crazy refreshing her Insta feed and being jealous, so any advice would be good." Lucy unlocked the door and walked into the apartment, feeling like her brain was a sponge that had been wrung out."Shut the door and wait right there!" Sei called out from the kitchen. Lucy took off her shoes, dropped her purse on the end table, and sat down on the arm of the sofa, waiting for Sei."Close your eyes!" Sei called out. Lucy closed her eyes and heard Sei coming in from the kitchen."Okay, you can open them now!" Lucy opened her eyes and saw Sei standing in front of her holding a green cake."I made you a mint choco cake to celebrate taking your exams!" Sei said.Lucy smiled at her. "You do remember that I don't get the results today, don't you?"Sei nodded. "I know. I just wanted to celebrate the fact that you'd finished the tests. We can worry about whether or not you passed later," she said with a smile. "As if you wouldn't pass!""I don't know," Lucy said with a sigh. "Those were the hardest tests I've ever taken.""All the more reason to have some cake!" Sei said, leading Lucy over to the table. "Everyone who wants cake, get in here!" she yelled, startling Lucy. Sei started cutting pieces of cake and serving them out on plates. Everyone agreed that the cake was delicious - the members who don't like mint choco just scraped the icing of theirs and said that the chocolate part was good."Lucy should take exams every day, if that's what it takes to get Sei to bake a cake," Rina said.Lucy shuddered. "Don't even joke about that!"Suyeon checked the time on her phone. "Well, don't eat too much cake," she said. "I've got to go fix dinner.""Oh - ummm - wait!" Sei exclaimed, interposing herself between Suyeon and the kitchen. "I've got to clean up the kitchen before you can cook. I got it a little messy."Suyeon pushed her way past Sei to get a look at the kitchen. When she saw it, her jaw dropped. "That's not 'a little messy,' Sei," she said. "That's totally trashed! There's no way you can get it clean in time for me to fix dinner! You're going to have to order delivery for dinner tonight, and then you're going to have to get the kitchen clean!""I can get it clean in time for you to cook!" Sei protested. Suyeon raised her eyebrow dubiously. "Really? You can get the whole kitchen clean in half an hour?"Sei nodded."Well, you can give it a shot," Suyeon said as she walked off to the small bedroom. "I'll look in on you in half an hour, and if the kitchen isn't clean, then you'll have to order delivery."After they heard Suyeon's door shut, Lucy looked at Sei and said "So let me get this straight: If you bust your ass and get the kitchen clean in half an hour, then we have to eat Suyeon's cooking tonight. Or you can take your time cleaning and we can have delivery? This is really a choice?"Sei smiled. "I hadn't thought of it that way!" Raising her voice, she called out after Suyeon "Don't worry about cooking, Suyeon! I'll go ahead and order delivery!"As Sei pulled out her phone and started ordering food in the delivery app, she asked Lucy "So. . . are you going to help me clean the kitchen?"Lucy laughed. "Are you kidding? I've been in exams all day!"Sei pouted.Lucy laughed even harder. "If you're going to be like that, I'll at least keep you company in the kitchen."Sei rolled her eyes. 'Well, I guess that will have to do!"Lucy leaned forward and gave Sei a quick kiss. "Come on - the sooner you get the kitchen clean, the sooner you can get back to lavishing attention on me!" Suyeon and Elly were sitting on the couch, each texting. Suyeon looked over at Elly. "Who are you texting so furiously?" she asked. "It can't be K.Will because he's texting me.""Alice-sunbae," Elly said. "Lua's having girlfriend issues and came to me for advice. I wasn't sure what to do, so I told her to stay cool for a while and let me talk to Alice-sunbae about things."'Want me to help?" Suyeon asked.Elly shook her head. "First of all - and don't take this the wrong way - your love like isn't exactly something that Lua should aspire to. And secondly - and more importantly - I want the advice to be coming from outside the group, just in case she's wrong and everything blows up.""Good point," Suyeon said. "Of course, it's not my fault that Moonbin turned out to be a dog."Elly leaned her head on Suyeon's shoulder. "No, it's not. And hopefully after you break up with K.Will we'll be able to find you a decent guy."Suyeon laughed ruefully. "I think there's only one of those in the world, and you got him."Elly looked at Suyeon. "I'm serious. There's got to be someone out there who'll be good to you, and we'll find him."Suyeon looked unconvinced. "I'm thinking of just swearing off men for a while.""That's just your frustration talking," Elly said. "Once you and K.Will break up, the right guy for you will turn up. Speaking of - have you and K.Will decided when and how you're going to break up?"Suyeon nodded. "When we go to America in October, he and I are going to have a long phone call, at the end of which he's going to have his agency announce that we're no longer dating."Elly nodded. "That sounds like a good plan. It says you from having to have a public scene." Just then Elly's phone beeped with a string of texts. "And there's Alice Sunbae's answers. I'd better go talk to Lua. See you later!" Elly got up and headed to the big bedroom, reading her texts as she went. Suyeon laid down on the couch and wrapped her arms around herself. "I hope Elly's right," she thought. "I hope there's someone out there for me."
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Armed with Alice-Sunbae's advice on how to handle the situation, Lua sat down on her bed and started texting Jennie, preparing to talk to her about the mysterious blonde in all her tour photos. Once the conversation was started, she turned the subject: She texted "I've been looking at all the pictures from your US tour. It looks like things are going great. Who's the cute blonde who keeps showing up in all the picture? You guys got yourself a groupie?" with a silly face to show that she was teasing.She lay back in her her bed, waiting impatiently for Jennie's response. When it finally came, it wasn't something that reassured her. "Can't talk now. TTYL. Gotta go.""Aargh!" Lua screamed, throwing her phone down on the bed beside her and covering her head with her pillow. Just then she heard the bedroom door open and peeked out from under the pillow. It was Elly. She sat up, put the pillow aside, and sniffled a little bit before saying "Hey Elly. I tried talking to Jennie like you and Alice-sunbae said, but it didn't go well."Elly sat down next to Lua and put her arm around her shoulders. "Aww, sweetie! It can't be that bad - we've all seen you with Jennie and seen how much she loves you."Lua sniffled again. "Maybe that's not enough. Maybe the distance got to be too much for her." She handed her phone to Elly.Elly quickly read through Lua and Jennie's conversation up to Jennie's hasty exit. "Well," she said, "that's not as good as you might hope for, but maybe it doesn't mean anything. You know how often we have to disappear from text conversations because managers come up or bandmates interrupt us or we have to do a promo. It could be anything. I bet they're keeping her super-busy in America."Lua leaned against Elly, still sniffling occasionally. "I hope you're right," she said."I think I am," Elly said. "Just wait and see."Lua shrugged. "It's not like there's anything else I can do." She got up and left the bedroom, leaving Elly alone. During the next day's promotions, Lua wasn't her usual cheerful self. She gave the shortest possible answers to questions and generally seemed like she'd rather be anywhere else. Suyeon was about to fuss at her about it when Elly grabbed her by her shoulder and whispered in her ear. Suyeon nodded, then looked pityingly at Lua for a moment. Within a minute, the word had been passed to all the other members: "Lua's having problems. Cover for her."Soon the day's promotions had ended and they were back in their apartment. Suyeon looked around at everyone - Lua's glum mood seemed to have rubbed off on all the other members. Suyeon was trying to think of something to do to cheer everyone up when Doyeon said "Hey Suyeon! We're off tomorrow - it's time to have that big party you promised us!"Suyeon looked around at the other members. "You all want to do the party tonight?" she asked.There was a moment of silence, everyone subconsciously waiting for Lua to answer, before Lua said "Why not? Let's go for it!"Suyeon collected cash from everyone, then fired up the liquor store's app to order drinks and snacks for the evening. Within an hour, they had a table full of salty snacks and a fridge full of soju and beer. Lua was the first to open a bottle of soju and a bottle of beer and mix up a somaek. She tried to drink it in one go, but wasn't quite able to finish it."Probably just as well," Doyeon said. "You don't want to pass out too quickly while the rest of us are still up having fun."Lua smiled weakly at Doyeon, nodded, and drank the rest of her drink.Lucy opened up a karaoke app on her phone and she, Sei, and Rina started singing as they drank. After a while, Yoojung joined them, dancing enthusiastically as she sang until her flailing arm knocked Lucy's phone off the table and onto the floor. Lucy picked up her phone and saw that the screen had cracked, but the phone still worked. "I'm sorry, Lucy," Yoojung said. "I'll go tomorrow and get your screen fixed."Lucy stopped short, her eyebrows knitted together. She had been prepared to start screaming at Yoojung, but after what Yoojung had said, there really wasn't anything left to yell at her about. The evening wore on, everyone getting progressively more tipsy. Suyeon was getting ready to suggest they call it a night when, at a pause between songs, Lua's text notification went off. Lua picked up her phone off the table and looked at it. "It's Jennie," she said, her voice a mixture of excitement and dread. She opened her message and then, seeing that all her members were watching her, she rolled her eyes and began reading it out loud. "She says 'Hey babe, I can talk now.'"She read aloud as she typed into her phone. "Hey! We're having a Weki Meki somaek party. Wish you could be here."In just a few seconds, Jennie's response came in. "I wish I could be there with you, but I don't envy you the headache you'll have tomorrow. Anyway, can you get away so we can talk in private?" Lua stood up, looked around at her members, and said "I'll see you later. Wish me luck."Their good wishes followed her into the big bedroom and she shut the door behind herself."I hope this goes well," Elly said quietly."We should have made everyone give up phones before the party started," Doyeon said. "She really needs to be sober for this conversation." "Well, it's too late now," Suyeon said. "All we can do is hope she doesn't screw things up." The next morning, as usual, Sei and Lucy were the first ones up. They cleaned up the apartment, then just sat around waiting for the others to wake up."I wish we could go out to Lee's American like we did the morning after the last party," Lucy said."Maybe we can," Sei said."Oh no," Lucy replied. "I'm not going to risk pissing Suyeon off again. We'll just stay here and have rice and tangerines for breakfast."Lucy got up to head for the kitchen, but Sei grabbed her arm and pulled her back down onto the couch. "I know we can't go out as a couple," Sei said quietly, but if we wait for another member to get up, the three of us could go out!"Just then Yoojung came out of the small bedroom, rubbing her head absent-mindedly."Hey Yoojung," Sei called out. "Want to go with us to Lee's American for breakfast?"Yoojung shook her head. "I've got to get a shower, then I've got to take Lucy's phone to get the screen fixed.""You sure you wouldn't rather have a good breakfast before heading out to the phone repair shop?" Sei asked.Yoojung shook her head more forcefully, then winced and grabbed her forehead. "The way I feel right now, breakfast is the last thing I'm interested in. Especially not anything from Lee's American.""Well, if you're sure. . ." Lucy said quietly."I'm sure," Yoojung said. "Maybe the next person to wake up will feel up to being your third wheel. And don't forget to leave your phone on the table so I can take it.""Putting it down right now," Lucy said, putting the phone on top of one of Doyeon's celebrity gossip magazines.Rina was the next one to wake up, and she agreed to go to Lee's American with Sei and Lucy. On the way back, they went shopping for a while - Rina wanted to shop for a birthday present for Jeongyeon."Isn't her birthday like two months from now?" Lucy asked."It is," Rina said, "but right now all the stores have Chuseok gift sets out, so I should be able to find something nice for her that I wouldn't normally be able to afford."After agreeing with her that this was a clever idea, they spent the rest of the morning following her around the stores. Eventually she settled on a skin care gift set.'Isn't that the first thing she looked at?" Sei quietly asked Lucy as Rina was checking out.Lucy nodded. "It is - but now she knows there's nothing else she can afford that she likes better.""It just seems like a lot of shopping," Sei said."You know," Lucy said with a smile, "not everyone hates shopping as much as you do!"Just then Rina rejoined them and they made their way back to the apartment. "Here you go - all fixed," Yoojung said, handing Lucy her phone."Thanks, unnie," Lucy said, leaning down to give Yoojung a hug.Just then all conversations stopped and everyone turned to watch Lua come out of the big bedroom. Lua stopped short, her eyes darting from one member to the next. "Why is everyone staring at me?" she asked."We want to know how your conversation with Jennie went," Ellie responded."Conversation with Jennie? What are you talking about?" Lua asked as she crossed the apartment to get a bottle of water from the fridge. She opened the bottle, took a sip, and then said "I drank too much somaek and then went to bed last night. That's it.""No, that's not it," Ella said, as Rina rushed off to the bedroom to retrieve Lua's phone. "You drank too much somaek, then Jennie texted you, then you went into the bedroom and texted her for a while, then you went to sleep."As soon as Rina handed Lua her phone, she opened up her texting app and started reading the previous night's conversation. "Oh my god," she said, "I was so drunk I could barely type. I can't believe Jennie still talked to me, and about something so serious." She read on and on, a smile appearing on her face, then growing wider and wider. Finally, Doyeon couldn't take anymore. "Well? What'd she say?" she asked.Lua laughed for a moment before saying. "It was all a big misunderstanding." The others all waited in silence until she started talking again. "The blonde in all the pictures was the US promoter's daughter. She was so obnoxious - she thought that she and the members of Blackpink were best friends, but the truth was, none of them could stand her! They only put up with her because they had to!""And did you asking about her cause any problems between you and Jennie?" Elly asked.Lua shook her head. "No. She thinks it's cute that I worried about some American rando hitting on her, but I really need to work on my self esteem if I thought there was a chance that anyone could steal Jennie away from me.""That's the same thing Alice-Sunbae and I told you," Elly said.Lua nodded. "I know. You did." She stopped to take another drink of water. "But it sounded more convincing coming from Jennie. Besides, I didn't even tell you the funniest part: This American girl? Guess what her name is."None of them had any idea, and Lua started laughing so hard she was barely able to say "Karen Marie! And they showed her how to write her name in Korean! 계란말이!" AUTHOR'S NOTE: In case you didn't get the joke: The Korean word for a rolled omelette is "계란말이", which sounds kind of like someone with a Korean accent saying the name "Karen Marie." (This was one of my recent vocabulary words in Drops, and I had to write this so I could stop giggling every time the word popped up.)
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Yoojung cursed her luck - of all the times for her joint pain for flare up, it had to flare up now, when Weki Meki was getting ready to go to Texas to play for their American Ki-Lings.
"I hate this!" Yoojung said as she stumped around the apartment on her crutches. "I hate it, I hate it, I hate it!"
Doyeon gave her a hug and stroked her hair to calm her down. "It'll be okay,' she said, 'It's not like this will be the only time we ever go to America!"
Yoojung stomped her foot and looked up at Doyeon. "You don't know that! And even if you're right and we do get to go back to America, there's only one first time and I'm going to miss it!"
"You've just got to have faith in us," Doyeon said. "We're going to do such a great job that FanMu will be eager to send us back to America. But doing a good job starts with you letting go of me so I can finish packing."
Yoojung hugged Doyeon tighter. "You haven't even gone and I miss you already."
Doyeon managed to extricate herself from Yoojung's clutches, and as she was making her way to the small bedroom said "It's just one performance. We'll be back before you know it. We'll spend more time on planes than we'll spend in America."
"Well, all right," Yoojung said as she followed Doyeon to the bedroom. "But I want you to have fun and I want to hear all about it - if you're going to leave me here all alone, at least make it worthwhile."
Suyeon looked up as Doyeon and Yoojung came into their bedroom. "You've got about ten minutes to finish packing," she said. She snapped her suitcase shut and headed out into the living room. She put her suitcase down by the front door and sat down on the couch next to Elly.
"So," Elly said, "are you ready to break up with my boyfriend?"
Suyeon laughed. "I've been ready! Saturday night after the concert I'll give him a call, then I'm free and you can go back to dating him in secret."
"At least until our dating ban gets lifted," Elly said.
Lucy and Sei came in and put their suitcases down by the door.
"I'm ready to go see the American Ki-Lings," Lucy said.
"And to try American food," Sei said.
Lua came into the room just in time to hear this last. "Oh yeah," she said, "I want to try to world famous Texas barbecue!"
Just then Suyeon's phone rang. Shushing everyone, Suyeon answered it. When she hung up about a minute later, she called out "Okay everyone! Manager-nim will be here with the van in about 3 minutes, so we've got to get downstairs. Yoojung, are you coming down to say good-bye, or are we saying good-bye to you here."
"I'm coming down," Yoojung said as she popped out of the bedroom carrying Doyeon's bag. I'm hoping that Manager-nim will see how healthy I look and decide to take me with you."
"You can hope, but don't hold your breath," Suyeon said. "Everyone grab your luggage and be sure you've got your passport!"
The flight to the US was long and uneventful. The girls watched movies, chatted with their neighbors, and napped. They got to Texas with just a few hours left before the concert. They checked in to their hotel, ordered in some dinner, and got dressed for the concert.
The concert itself was amazing - they had never expected there to be so many American Ki-Lings. Doyeon was particularly pleased to be able to look out into the crowd and see people singing along. After about an hour, the concert ended. They said good-bye to the American Ki-Ling and headed back to their hotel. They were all so hyped from the show that none of them was tired. They opened the connecting doors between their rooms and spent the night watching American TV, trying snacks from the vending machines at the end of the hall, and just generally hanging out.
At about midnight, Elly sidled up to Suyeon. "Suyeon, don't you have a phone call to make?" she asked.
"Oh. . . yeah! I was having such a good time I almost forgot!" Suyeon replied. She grabbed her phone and retreated to the quietest corner she could find. After about 15 minutes, she sought Elly out again.
"Okay," Suyeon said. "It's done. As arranged, we had a short fight on the phone in case anyone from the agencies was listening in, and now we've split up."
Elly swept Suyeon up in a hug. "That's wonderful! I'm so happy for you!"
Suyeon laughed. "Are you sure you're not happy for yourself?"
"Who says I can't be both?" Elly asked with a laugh.
After that phone call, Suyeon was able to enjoy the remainder of their trip without reservation. The next day they went to Whattaburger, which all their American handlers said was a big favorite in Texas.They had cheeseburgers and fries.
"I don't know what they differently, but that was better than the hamburger at Lee's American!" Lucy said as she finished her burger.
"Check this out," Doyeon said. "It's a trick I learned when Yoojung and I came to America before." She went up to the counter and ordered a chocolate shake. When she brought it back to the table, she took the lid off, picked up one of her fries, and dipped it in the shake.
"Ugggh!" Lucy exclaimed. "That's good?"
"Try it," Doyeon said, holding the shake out toward Lucy. Moving hesitantly, as if she expected the shake to bite her, Lucy picked up a fry, dipped it in the shake, and ate it. A smile spread across her face.
"That's actually really good!" she said.
"I told you!" Doyeon said, laughing. She and Lucy got all the others to try dipping their fries in the chocolate shake. Even Elly, who was usually very picky about foods, agreed that it was good.
When they got off the plane in Seoul, Manager-nim was waiting for them at the arrival area.
"Suyeon-ah, we need to talk," she said.
Manager-nim and Suyeon hung back until the others were walking well ahead of them.
"Suyeon-ah, it's in the news that you and K.Will have broken up," Manager-nim said.
Suyeon confirmed that this was true.
"You do realize, of course," Manager-nim said, "that this means you'll go back under the dating ban."
Suyeon nodded. "I know," she said.
"Are you sure you can't patch things up with K.Will?" Manager-nim asked.
Suyeon shook her head no.
"I only asked because you dating K.Will was good publicity for you, and so good publicity for Weki Meki," Manager-nim went on. "Are you sure you can't give him another chance?"
Suyeon suddenly though she saw an opening. She wished she had a chance to confirm this with K.Will, but instead she'd just have to seize the moment. "I'm sure," Suyeon said. "He said he'd fallen for one of my members and wanted to date her as soon as our dating ban was lifted."
"Interesting," Manager-nim said, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. "Did he happen to member which of your members it was?"
"He didn't say her name," Suyeon said, "but based on some of the things he said, I think it was Elly."
"Elly's not that much younger than you," Manager-nim said. "Would it bother you if Elly was dating K.Will?"
Suyeon shrugged. "No more than it would bother me to see him dating anyone else. But you can't help who you love, you know? So I wouldn't be upset with either one of them, if that's what you're asking."
Manager-nim smiled. "I must say, Suyeon, I'm impressed with how maturely you're handling this."
By this time they had reached the van, where the other members were waiting, so the conversation had to end, but Suyeon was sure that the smile on Manager-nim's face meant something good.
Yoojung was waiting for them back at the apartment.
"I'm so glad you're back!" she yelled, jumping up and down.
Doyeon caught her up in a hug and lifted her off the ground. "I missed you so much!" she said.
"I've got chicken and beer waiting for you in the kitchen," Yoojung said.
"That's awesome!" Lua said, waiting for Doyeon to put Yoojung down so she could hug her.
Suyeon looked around, then got Elly's attention. "I need to talk to you a second, in private. Meet me in my room?" she asked.
"Sure," Elly said, "just let me put down my suitcase."
A couple of minutes later Suyeon and Elly were sitting on Suyeon's bed in the small bedroom.
"What's up?" Elly asked.
Suyeon told Elly about the conversation she'd had with Manager-nim on the way to the van. "So, it sounds like things are turning your way," Suyeon said.
"Oh, I hope so!" Elly said. "I have had it up to here with hiding!"
"You think you should give K.Will a call, tell him about this?" Suyeon asked.
Elly shook her head. "No. I won't tell him about this until there's something more to tell. But now that he's no longer your boyfriend, I am going to call him." As Elly was getting up to leave the room, she turned back to Suyeon and said "Good job on the conversation with Manager-Nim. You did a good job thinking on your feet there."
"Thanks," Suyeon said. "I was afraid of screwing things up, but I figured it was worth a shot. Now, you go make your phone call and I'll go to the kitchen to celebrate my singlehood with chicken and beer."
Suyeon entered the kitchen to find the party in full swing. Sei was sitting on the counter, a piece of chicken in one hand, a beer in the other, making out with Lucy, who was standing in front of her. Doyeon was telling Yoojung everything that had happened on the trip to America. And Lua and Rina were both texting with one hand, handling their chicken and beer with the other, getting in touch with their girlfriends now that they were back in the country.
"Hey Suyeon," Rina called out, "when our next day off?"
"Next Tuesday," Suyeon said.
"Yes!" Rina danced in her seat. "Twice is off the same day, so I can see Jeongyeon! Don't look for me next Tuesday!"
Suyeon laughed. She moved over to where Dohyeon and Yoojung were standing, opened a beer and drank half of it at one go, then picked up a piece of chicken and took an enormous bite off of it.
"No wonder you don't have a boyfriend, Suyeon," Doyeon said with a laugh, "you're so ladylike!"
Yoojung looked around in excitement. "Suyeon doesn't have a boyfriend? So the breakup went off as planned?"
"Better than planned," Suyeon said, "because Manager-Nim thinks part of the reason he broke up with me is because he fell of Elly, and so there's a chance that Elly will be released from the dating restriction to date K.Will."
"That'll be great!" Yoojung said, practically quivering with excitement.
"Yeah," Suyeon said, "I think, despite what she said to me at the beginning of this, that Manager-Nim is happy to have any of us dating K.Will and she doesn't really care which one it is."
"Well, it's good publicity for the band," Doyeon said. "K.Will can hardly change his socks without getting in the news, so that means anyone who's dating him will be in the news all the time too."
Suyeon nodded at this and took another pull on her beer. "So Doyeon's telling you everything that happened in America?" she asked Yoojung.
Yoojung held up a hand and finished chewing the chicken that was in her mouth. "She's working on it. So far she's gotten to the point where you showed up for the show," she said. "Was the stage really in a field behind a shopping mall?"
Suyeon nodded. "It really was. I wish we could have gone in so that we can see what an American shopping mall is like, but there's no way we could have done that without a flood of Ki-Lings following us."
"There were Ki-Lings there?" Yoojung asked.
Doyeon nodded. "Tons of Ki-Lings. You'd look out from the stage and you could see most of the audience singing along, some of them holding up homemade signs and some of them holding up our slogans."
"That's great!" Yoojung said. "And you got a chance to practice your English for them!"
"We all did," Doyeon said. "Even Elly!"
"I bet the American Ki-Lings really loved that," Yoojung said. "So what happened next?"
"Well," Doyeon went on, "after the show we went back to the hotel and. . ."
Suyeon waved good-bye to Yoojung and Doyeon and went over to look out the window. "Somewhere out there," she though, looking out at the lights of Seoul, "is the guy for me. And now that I don't have to prevent to date K.Will, I'm going to find him."
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Tuesday morning, Rina met up with Yeongyeon at their usual coffee shop.
"Do you think it's too cold to go boating again?" Rina asked.
Jeongyeon shook her head. "It should be fine - we're not planning to be actually in the water. Is that what you want to do today?"
Rina nodded. "I was just thinking about our first date and wanted to do that again."
"Well, that explains the beret," Jeongyeon said, reaching up to adjust the angle of Rina's hat.
Once they were outside, Jeongyeon pulled up the hood on her jacket. It wouldn't keep them from being recognized, but it made her feel a little better and maybe it would make fans think twice about approaching them.
"What are you doing next Thursday?" Jeongyeon asked.
'I think it's just a regular practice day, so I should be free that evening," Rina replied.
"Well, let me know as soon as you find out for sure," Jeongyeon said. "My sister's been nominated for an acting award and she gave me two tickets to the awards ceremony."
"That sounds great!" Rina exclaimed. Then she got quiet, and after a moment's silence asked "Are you sure it's okay for us to go to that together?"
"Sure," Jeongyeon said. "Once already know that we're friends and they think it's cute, so I imagine Ki-Lings are okay with it too."
"Once knows about us?" Rina asked, her eyes wide.
Jeongyeon nodded. "Several times they've taken pictures of us whenever we were out together. They call them 'friend-dates', which I think is really cute." She pulled out her phone and pulled up one of the articles to show Rina. "I imagine some of them have figured out the truth, but if they have, they're keeping quiet about it."
"That's good," Rina said, her relief evident in her face. "I'm not supposed to be dating at all, and being caught dating a woman would make it even worse."
Jeongyeon nodded. "I know. Many of our fans would be okay with it, but all the ahjummas and ahjussis would freak out."
By this time they had reached the boat rental kiosk. "Look," Jeongyeon said, "they've got our boat waiting for us!" She pointed to where the "Lovely Lady" was tied up by the dock. "Let me go in and take care of the rental and then we'll be off on the water."
Jeongyeon went up to the kiosk to handle the rental, and Rina stayed where she was an looked around. It was really a beautiful day: The weather was nice, the autumn leaves were a blaze of red, orange, and yellow, and she was getting to spend the day with Jeongyeon. Did life get any better?
Suyeon was puttering around the kitchen, getting ready to scramble some eggs for lunch, when Sei came in and asked "Are we still forbidden from doing anything even vaguely couple-y?"
Suyeon looked at her, assessing the situation. "What did you have in mind?" she asked.
"Nothing risky," she said with a shrug. "Lucy and I wanted to go to Lee's American for lunch and then to a movie afterward."
"That sounds do-able," Suyeon said. "Go for it!"
The smile that came over Sei's face was enough to brighten Suyeon's entire day. She jumped up and down and then gave Suyeon a hug, almost making her drop the eggs. "Thanks, unnie! Do you want to come with us?"
Suyeon somehow managed to get the eggs and seasonings safely down on the counter before asking "Doesn't that sort of defeat the purpose of you and Lucy having a date?"
Sei shrugged. "I hate to think of you just sitting around here by yourself, eating scrambled eggs and watching TV. Besides, it'd give you a chance to see what we're like in public, so maybe you wouldn't worry so much!"
Suyeon looked at the eggs, then looked back at Sei. "If it's okay with Lucy, sure."
Lucy happened to walk into the kitchen just in time to hear Suyeon's last comment. "If what's okay with Lucy?" she asked.
"Oh, I asked Suyeon to come with us to Lee's American and to the movies," Sei said.
Lucy thought for a moment. "Sounds fine with me - given how careful we have to be, it's not like there's anything we could do without Suyeon that we couldn't do with Suyeon."
"Okay then, let me put these things away and change clothes and I'll be ready to go," Suyeon said.
"Sounds great!" Lucy said with a smile.
Once she and Sei were alone in the kitchen, Lucy leaned over and asked "Why did you invite Suyeon to come with us?"
Sei shrugged. "She just looked so pitiful. Even if the breakup with K.Will was from a fake relationship, it was still a real breakup and she's really left alone. Besides, I figured if she saw how mature and well-behaved we could be when we're out together, she'd be more okay with us going out together to places where we might not be so well behaved."
"Such as?" Lucy asked
"Well, since we've got tomorrow morning free, I figured there would be nothing to stop us from going out clubbing tonight," Sei said, looking up at Lucy with a smile.
Lucy leaned down and kissed her. "That sounds great," she said. "It would be the most actual datelike thing we've been able to do in months!"
"Exactly," Sei said. "No one would see anything unusual about us going to a club together, or dancing together once we get there. We're just gals being pals!"
Lucy laughed at this. "People can be so clueless."
Sei shrugged. "They've got their ideas of the world, and they're so willing not to see anything that violates those ideas."
"Ooh, violation," Lucy said with a wicked glint in her eye. "They sounds fun."
Sei went up on tiptoes to kiss Lucy. "Behave yourself," she said.
"Or what?" Lucy said. "You'll have to punish me?"
Sei blushed. "You keep this up and I just might!" she said.
Elly was making out with K.Will in his Mercedes when her phone rang.
"Let it go to voice mail," he said.
She glanced down at her phone. "No, it's my manager. I have to take this." She motioned for him to be quiet and then put the phone on speaker. "Good morning, Manager-nim. What can I do for you?"
"Elly," Manager-nim said, her voice much warmer and friendlier than usual. "Suyeon tells me that part of the reason that K.Will broke up with her is that he was interested in dating you. Were you aware of this?"
"No, I wasn't," Elly said. "I met K.Will a couple of times while he was dating Suyeon, but nothing inappropriate happened."
"I wouldn't expect anything inappropriate," Manager-nim said. "K.Will is a good boy, and I trust you to know how to behave."
"Yes ma'am," Elly said. "I know we're still under dating ban for another year."
"Funny you should mention the dating ban," Manager-nim said. "If K.Will wants to ask you out and you're interested in him, I'll release from your dating ban for that. After all, like you saw with Suyeon, dating K.Will means lots of publicity for you, which means lots of publicity for Weki Meki."
"Okay, but-" Elly began.
"Okay. I'm texting K.Will your number right now - he's got to make the next move." Just then K.Will's phone beeped. "What was that?" Manager-nim asked.
Thinking quickly, Elly answered "That was an alarm I set on my phone to remind me to drink enough water. Don't want to get dehydrated!"
"Oh, Elly," Manager-nim said, "you and Suyeon are always so responsible. I worry about what will happen when some of your juniors are old enough to date."
"Really?" Elly asked.
"Oh, yes, especially Lua," Manager-nim said. "You can just see by the way she looks at guys that she's totally boy crazy!"
Elly managed not to laugh.
"Well, I won't tie up your day off. Have a good day and I'll see you in the morning," Manager-nim said.
"So do I need to let you know if K.Will calls me, or-" Elly started to ask.
"No, I'll just find out in the news, I'm sure," Manager-nim said. "Well, have a good day!"
Once she double-checked her phone to make sure Manager-nim had hung up, Elly and K.Will started laughing.
"Your manager is a mercenary!" K.Will said between laughs. "I think if push came to shove she'd let any of your members date me if it meant good publicity for Weki Meki."
"Yeah, she does sort of forget that we're people sometimes," Elly said. "I'm just glad we don't have to date in secret anymore."
"That is great," he agreed. "And what's up with her thinking Lua is boy-crazy?"
"I know, right?" Elly's laughter intensified. "Lua's a gold star lesbian and the least likely member of Weki Meki to ever, ever, EVER date a guy!"
After a couple of more minutes, their laughter subsided to the point that they were able to talk normally. "So," he said, "since we're free to date now, do you want to go out for lunch?"
"I think you'd better call me and ask me out," she said, gesturing toward his phone, "just in case the managers are monitoring us. But I'm pretty sure I'll say yes." She winked.
He leaned over and kissed her, then pulled up her number and pressed "Dial."
Lua was on an exercise bike in the dorm's gym, her phone propped up in front of her. Unfortunately Blackpink didn't have this day off, so she was having to make due with texting Jennie.
"Are you really busy all day?" she texted petulantly.
After a few minutes, Jennie's reply came back. "Yes, all day. :( But I'm free late this evening, if you want to get together."
"If I want to!" Lua said indignantly. "OF COURSE I WANT TO!" she texted.
Jennie's response was much quicker this time. "Okay. No need to yell. I'll pick you up at 9. ^^ Now I've got to work, so I won't be able to text."
"OK. See you tonight," Lua responded. She looked around the gym. She was the only one in here - Weki Meki and Astro both had the day off, and apparently everyone but her had something better to do than exercise. She pouted, then reached down and increased the tension on the bike.
"If I'm going to exercise, I might as well really sweat it out," she said to herself, upping the intensity. Twenty minutes later she stopped, drenched in sweat and totally exhausted. She went to the shower, realized she'd forgotten her shampoo, and decided she'd wait and shower when she got back to the apartment.
"Now watch," she thought to herself, "just because I'm walking through the halls looking like this, today's the day a stray photographer will have managed to get loose in the building." But, there was nothing to be done for it - with all the dyeing her hair went through, she needed her special nourishing shampoo to ward of split ends and frizz.
Fortunately, she was able to make it back to the apartment without incident. She walked in to find Doyeon and Yoojung cuddled up on the couch, watching a drama.
"What are you two doing?" she asked. "We've got a whole day off and you're going to spend it at home?"
"I'm having a pain flare today," Yoojung said. "We're hoping that if I spend all day resting today, I'll be feeling better tomorrow and Manager-nim will let me back in the line-up."
Lua nodded. "That's smart. I hope you feel better soon."
"Thanks," Yoojung said. "Speaking of resting, we were about to order in some food. Want us to order some for you too?"
"That'd be great," Lua said with a smile. "You know what I like. I've got to go get in the shower now - I'm so sweaty I can hardly stand myself."
"And not even the good kind of sweaty," Doyeon said with a laugh. "I'm guessing Jennie didn't have today off?"
"Nope," Lua said, "but she's going to pick me up at 9 and we're going out."
"Suyeon's not going to like you being out that late," Doyeon said. "We've got TV appearances tomorrow morning and she'll want everyone to look rested."
"So I'll take a nap this afternoon," Lua said. "I'm not going to miss a chance to see Jennie tonight."
"All right, calm down," Doyeon said. "You want black bean noodles?"
"Sure," Lua said, "and dakjuk - I'm starved!"
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Suyeon, Sei, and Lucy walked into the apartment after the movie.
"That was really a great movie. Thanks for inviting me," Suyeon said. "If you don't have any plans for tonight, I was thinking I'd order in for the three of us."
"Um. . ." Lucy stammered. "Actually, we already have plans."
"Oh?" Suyeon raised an eyebrow and waited for Lucy to elaborate.
"We're going out dancing," Sei said.
"Don't you get enough dancing in our day to day lives?" Suyeon asked.
Lucy shook her head. "There's a difference between professional dancing and dancing for fun."
"Okay, just don't be out to late," Suyeon said. "We've got TV promos in the morning."
"No problem," Lucy said.
"We're going to go hang out in our room now," Sei said.
Suyeon walked into the common room and saw Doyeon and Yoojung sitting there watching a drama.
"She's having a pain flare, so we're spending the day in hoping she'll be better tomorrow," Doyeon said protectively.
"I wasn't even going to say anything," Suyeon said.
"We're ordering in," Yoojung said. "Do you want anything?"
"Sure," Suyeon said, sitting down next to Doyeon. "Just let me look at the menu for a second." She pulled her phone out to look at the menu. "Looks like I forgot to turn it back on after the movie."
When she turned her phone back on, half a dozen texts came up, rapid-fire.
"Oh look," Suyeon said, "Moonbin wants to get back together. Delete, delete, delete. Apparently he heard about me breaking up with K.Will and thought he could weasel his way back in. Hell no."
"But we do need to find you somebody," Yoojung said.
"Unfortunately," Doyeon added, "most of the guys we know are in Astro, which puts them off-limits."
"Thanks guys, but I'm really not looking right now," Suyeon said. "I think I'm going to wait and let him make the first move, whoever he is."
"Well, you can do that," Yoojung said, "but what if there was a guy that you wanted him to make the first move. Would it be okay for your members to get him a hint and your phone number?"
Suyeon rolled her eyes. "I suppose that would be okay. But I don't want my members trying to set me up with someone I haven't shown an interest in."
Just then Lua walked in. "Who are they trying to fix you up with?" she asked.
"No one," Suyeon said quickly, "and I'm kind of trying to keep it that way.
"Afraid we'll set you up with another Moonbin?" Lua asked.
"Something like that," Suyeon agreed.
Lua looked at Yoojung. "Is the food here yet?"
Yoojung laughed. "We got to talking to Suyeon and haven't even ordered yet."
Lua took a moment to think about this. "Okay," she finally said, "when it comes, just leave mine on the table. I'm going to go take a nap."
Suyeon looked at Lua, her suspicion written all over her face. "A nap? Why?"
Lua sighed. "Because I'm going out with Jennie tonight, but she can't pick me up until nine."
"Nine?" Suyon exclaimed. "That's too late - when would you be back? Two? Three? We've got TV promos tomorrow morning."
"I didn't forget the TV promos," Lua said. "That's why I'm getting a nap now - so I' can go out tonight and still be rested tomorrow."
"And you'll be back by one?" Suyeon asked.
"By two,' Lua countered. "I don't know where she wants to take me, so we've got to factor in travel time."
Suyeon nodded. "By two. But if you're even one minute late. . ."
Lua nodded. "I know, I know. I'll be doing everybody's chores for a month. Don't worry - I'll be back on time."
And with that, she headed into her bedroom to get a nap.
Sei and Lucy were at their fifth club of the night, checking out a number of different DJs. This one was playing a mixture of funk and city pop. They were having a great time dancing, but they were getting tired about to call it a night.
"Let's go get a drink," Lucy said.
Sei led the way to the bar and ordered a screwdriver for herself and a cosmo for Lucy. They stood at the bar enjoying their drinks and people-watching. Suddenly Sei saw something in the VIP room that made her gasp.
"What is it?" Lucy asked.
Sei leaned close to Lucy and said "Keep your eye on the VIP room door. Next time it opens, tell me who you see in there."
They only had to wait a couple of minutes before the VIP room door opened again and Lucy saw- "Is that Lua and Jennie in there?"
Sei nodded. "It is. And were they still in a lip-lock when you saw them?"
Lucy nodded, her face pale. "They're going to get in so much trouble. We've got to do something!"
"I know what to do," Sei said. "Follow me."
She walked up to the door of the VIP room, but the bouncer wouldn't let them in.
"But we're members of Weki Meki!" Sei protested.
"Weki who?" the bouncer asked.
As Sei and the bouncer argued, Lucy pulled out her phone and called Lua. "Hey! We're outside the VIP room door and the bouncer won't let us in. Help?"
Lua opened the door and saw Sei and Lucy. "They're with me," she told the bouncer.
"And who are you?" the bouncer asked.
"She's with me," Jennie said from behind Lua.
"Okay. Very sorry, miss. Can't be too careful, though," the bouncer said as he moved the velvet rope and admitted them to the VIP room.
Jennie led the Weki Meki girls to her table. She and Lua sat down on one side of the table, and Sei and Lucy sat down across from them. Lucy was looking around, trying to take everything in. "So this is a VIP room," she said.
Jennie looked around with distate. "The regular club is much more fun. The problem is, once you're famous enough to get into the VIP room, you pretty much have to go there: If you try going into the regular club, you'd get trampled by the crush of fans."
"I'd never thought of that," Lucy said. "We're not quite that famous yet, apparently."
"You will be," Jennie said. "You're great."
"Thanks," Lucy said.
"So, Lua was about to tell me about your trip to America." Jennie said. "How did you like it?"
"It was nice," Sei said, "but I wish we could have stayed longer. There was so much we didn't see."
"There's never enough time," Jennie said. "And America's so big, there's always something more to see. Don't worry - you'll get to go back."
"I hope so," Lucy said.
They spent a while listening to Jennie's stories about places that Blackpink had gone when suddenly an alarm on Sei's phone rang. She pulled her phone out and turned it off.
"What's supposed to happen now?" Jennie asked.
"Lucy and I have to leave now in order to get back to the dorm by curfew," Sei said.
"Oh, that's perfect," Jennie said. She turned to Lua. "I was worried about you going back by yourself. Instead you can go back with Sei and Lucy and I won't have to worry about you!"
"But," Lua protested, "I got Suyeon to agree that I'd be back later than usual so I could spend more time with you!"
"Oh know," Jennie said, "but I've been so worried that something would happen to you on the way home, so this is perfect. Do it for me?"
"But-" Lua protested, "we rarely get to see each other!"
"I know," Jennie said, "but I'd rather miss out on a little time with you if it meant I knew you were safe."
Lua sighed. "Okay. I guess I can't argue with that." She leaned in and kissed Jennie, then stood up and turned to Sei and Lucy. "Okay," she said, "I guess we should go."
Lua didn't talk to Sei and Lucy the entire bus ride back to the dorm. She wouldn't even make eye contact with them. As soon as they were back in the apartment, though, she whirled around to face them.
"What did you think you were doing?" she asked angrily.
"What?" Sei asked.
"You cost me an hour of time with Jennie!" she snapped. "And not only that, you cost me part of her attention for the half hour before that."
Sei saw Suyeon walking up behind Lua and said "Can't we talk about this later?"
Lua shook her head. "No. I want to get this settled right now. What were you thinking?"
Seeing that there was no way she was going to get out talking about this in front of Suyeon, Sei said "Because I happened to glance through the VIP room door and saw you and Jennie making out at your table. We were trying to keep you from getting in trouble!"
"The whole point of a VIP room is that you can do things like make out with your girlfriend without worrying about who might see."
"Oh yeah," Suyeon said, causing Lua to jump in surprise, "and how many times have we seen someone get busted for something they did in a VIP room? VIP rooms are like playgrounds for paparazzi."
"Oh sure, Suyeon," Lua said, "just automatically take their side!"
"I'm not taking anyone's side," Suyeon protested. "I'm just telling the truth as I see it and trying to protect Weki Meki."
"Well maybe I don't need your protection, Suyeon. You ever think of that?" And with that, Lua turned and stomped off to the bathroom.
"Don't worry about her," Suyeon said to Sei and Lucy. "She'll feel better in the morning."
"I hope you're right," Sei said quietly. "I never wanted to upset her like this."
"Don't worry about her," Suyeon said. "If she's still upset in the morning, I"ll deal with her."
"If you say so," Sei said hesitantly.
"I do," Suyeon said. "It's part of being the leader."
"Well, thanks," Sei said.
Suyeon leaned closer to Sei. "For what it's worth, I think you did the right thing."
Once Sei and Lucy had gone through their bedtime routines and climbed into their beds, Sei leaned over toward Lucy. "Do you think we did the right thing?" she asked.
Lucy shrugged. "Whether we did the right thing or not, we thought we were doing the right thing at the time. Anyway, there's no way to undo it." She leaned across the gap between their beds and gave Sei a kiss. "Just try to get some sleep and don't worry about it."
Sei flopped back onto her pillow. "Don't worry about it," she thought. "If only it was that easy."
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Sei woke up at 5 o'clock. She still had about half an hour to sleep before they had to start getting ready for the day's promos, but no matter how she tossed and turned, she couldn't get back to sleep. She quietly climbed down from her bed and tip-toed to the kitchen, where she found Rina already up.
"What are you doing up so early?" Sei asked.
Rina held up her phone. "This is when Jeongyeon was free."
Sei nodded. "That makes sense. How are things going with you two?" She fixed a bowl of rice, grabbed a can of tuna, and sat down at the table.
"Really good," Rina said when she finished writing her text. "Her fans know about us, but they think we're just friends. Whenever one of them gets a picture of us out together, they say we're on a 'friend date' - it's so cute!"
Sei sat, quietly thinking as she ate some of her rice and tuna. "Do you two ever go out to clubs?" she asked.
"Oh sure," Rina said with a nod. "Not as often as we'd like, you know, but sometimes."
"Would you make out with her in the VIP room of a club?" Sei asked.
Rina shook her head, scandalized. "No! That's what private rooms are for!" She paused for a second, then narrowed her eyes. "What did you do?"
Sei hurriedly shook her head. "Not me! Lua!" And she told Rina about what had happened the night before. "So, I don't know if Lua's still going to be pissed off when she wakes up or not."
"She better not be," Suyeon said as she came into the kitchen. "We've got promos to film today, and we need her to be her usual extra self."
"Don't worry, I will be," Lua said as she walked up behind Suyeon. She caught Sei's eyes. "I'm still not happy with you and Lua, but I'll be on point today." She got a can of orange juice out of the fridge and went back into the common room.
"Well, that could have gone better," Sei said, poking dejectedly at the last bite of her rice and tuna."
"I'll take care of it," Suyeon said, geabbing a can of juice and following Lua into the common room.
"Don't stress over it," Rina said. "Remember when Sei was pissed off at me?"
Sei shook her head. "I didn't know she ever was."
Rina nodded vigorously. "She was pissed off at me for most of the 'La la la' era, but you'd never know from her behavior in public."
"What was she so pissed off at you about?" Sei asked.
Rina waved dismissively. "Oh, we both had a crush on the same girl. Obviously neither one of us ended up with her, and I'm pretty sure she's straight anyway, but the point is, Lua's able to be a professional, even when she's pissed off."
"That's good," Sei said as she ate the last of her tuna and rice. "But I'd rather she wasn't mad at me at all."
"Well, eventually she won't be," Rina said. "You've just got to get through until then."
Sei nodded and put her bowl in the sink. "Well, I'm going to go get a shower now. Tell Jeongyeon I said hi!"
Doyeon could tell something was wrong - Sei missed her cue in dancing, which never happened, and Lucy failed when she tried to break an apple in half, which never, ever happened. She waited until they were in the van headed to their next promo and cornered Sei.
"What's wrong, Sei?" Doyeon asked. "I can't remember the last time you missed a cue in a performance. What's distracting you today?"
Sei looked around, making sure none of the others were listening. "Lua's mad at me and Lucy, because of what happened last night."
Doyeon nodded - Suyeon had told Doyeon and Yoojung about Sei and Lucy's encounter with Lua at the club, and they'd been able to hear Lua yelling when they got in. "Don't let her bother you," Doyeon said. "You've got me, Yoojung, and Suyeon on your side."
Sei sniffled. "I guess it helps a little, but I'd rather she wasn't mad at me."
"Well, don't worry about it," Doyeon said. "I'll have one of the unnies talk to her and we'll get this settled today."
"I guess that will help," Sei said with a nod.
Doyeon left Sei to look out the window and slid over to talk to Suyeon. "We've got to do something about Lua," she said. "Just knowing Lua is pissed at them is throwing Sei and Lucy off their game."
"I know," Suyeon said. "I tried talking to Lua this morning. She's willing to put on the appearance of being okay with them, but inside she's still just as mad as she was last night."
"So what do we do?" Doyeon asked.
Suyeon shook her head. "I don't know. I was thinking of asking Elly to talk with her."
"Why Elly?" Doyeon asked, her confusion evident in her face.
"Elly's the unnie of the big bedroom," Doyeon said. "I'm hoping that talking to her will seem less confrontational than if one of us comes over from the small bedroom to talk to her."
"That could work," Doyeon said with a nod, "or it could backfire: Remember, Elly's the only one of us who can date publicly. If Lua gets resentful of that, we might end up just increasing the number of people that Lua's mad at."
Suyeon thought for a moment. "I hadn't considered it that way," she said. "Well, would you be willing to try talking to her?"
"I guess I could. I mean, I'm her youngest unnie other than Sei, so maybe I won't set her off." Doyeon's face betrayed her lack of confidence in her words.
"Thanks, Doyeon," Suyeon said, either not picking up Doyeon's hesitancy or else choosing to ignore it.
"We're almost at the radio station!" Lucy called ouot from the front of the van. "Everybody get ready!"
That last couple of minutes before they arrived at the radio station were a flurry of activity as everyone checked their hair and makeup, anticipating the Ki-lings who'd be waiting outside the station to see them. The pathway from the van to the radio station was lined on both sides by Ki-lings stacked and four deep, holding slogans, posters, photographs, and magazines. Weki Meki spread out, trying to meet as many of their fans as they could without spending all day standing outside the radio station. Manager-nim had drilled into them: Sing one thing for every step you take. This let them keep their fans happy while still getting places in a reasonable amount of time. Only Lucy had any problem with it - she hated to see any Ki-ling get ignored, so by the time the others were at the station door, Lucy was only a quarter of the way there. Sei dashed back, grabbed Lucy, and rushed her up to the door.
"Sorry, folks," Sei called out to the fans. "We need our maknae. Thanks for supporting us!"
They all waved to the fans and vanished into the radio station.
As they were riding back to the dorm from the radio station, Rina pulled out her phone and started texting. "Suyeon," she asked, "are we free next Thursday evening?"
Suyeon pulled up the band's schedule on her phone. "Yeah, that's a free evening," she said. "Why?"
"Twice is launching their new fragrance next Thursday, and Jeongyeon wanted to invite me," Rina said.
"Sure, have fun," Suyeon said. She knew that Manager-nim would be in favor of anything that put a member of Weki Meki in front of the press.
After a bit more texting, Rina looked up again. "She says I can bring a +1! Lua, you want to go?"
Lua looked up from her phone, startled. "Me?"
"Sure!" Rina said. "I bet it'll be a blast!"
"Okay, let's do it!" Lua said.
Lua moved to sit by Rina so they could talk about the party.
Doyeon leaned over to Suyeon and said "That seems to have put Lua in a good mood. I'll talk to her when we get back to the dorm."
"Sounds good," Suyeon said.
Just then the van came to a stop. "Major traffic jam here," Manager-nim said. "Looks like we'll be here a while. Everybody get comfy."
Lucy leaned her head back against the seat and closed her eyes. "Wake me up when we get there," she said.
Sei turned to look at her. "You're really just going to go to sleep like that?"
Without opening her eyes, Lucy nodded. "I didn't sleep well last night. I kept thinking about Lua being mad at us and I was so upset I couldn't sleep."
Sei leaned her head on Lucy's shoulder. "Yeah, I know what you mean. I don't know if it makes it better or worse that she's able to act like she's not mad at us when we're out in public. Either way, I still know she's mad at us."
Lucy didn't answer - a soft snore let Sei know she had already fallen asleep. Sei was sitting in the back corner of the van, so there wasn't any way for her to talk to any of the other members without shouting across Lucy, which would make their conversation audible to everyone in the van. Consequently she was left alone with her thoughts. She thought it was unfair of Lua to be mad at her and Lucy after they'd apologized and explained why they did what they did - and after Suyeon had said they did the right thing! - but there was no way to make her not be mad, but it was unfair. . . Her thoughts chased themselves in circles until the stopping and starting motion of the van rocked her to sleep.
Four days. Lua had been mad at Lucy and Sei for four days. She never let on when they were out in public, but back at the dorm, the tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Doyeon had talked with Lua, but hadn't made any headway toward changing her mind. Suyeon racked her brain trying to come up with a solution, to no avail. She'd picked the other unnies' brains with no more success. Finally, she decided the time had come to take the nuclear option: She was joing to text Jennnie and get her to intervene.
"Of course," she thought, "it's possible that Jennie will agree with Lua, in which case I will have made the situation worse." But she didn't think it would work out that way, and besides, she was out of other options.
Suyeon got a cup of tea, sat down on the couch and started texting Jennie. Within a couple of minutes she had laid out the whole situation and she sat and drank her tea as she awaited Jennie's response. When Jennie's response did come, it was everything Suyeon could have possibly hoped for: Jennie had been unaware that the table she and Lua were sitting at was clearly visible from the bar every time the VIP room door opened, she was grateful to Sei and Lucy for making sure she and Lua weren't exposed, and she was mortified by Lua's behavior toward her members. She said she'd text Lua and try to get things turned around right away.
Suyeon sat and finished her tea as she listened to the flurry of pings from incoming texts that was audible from the big bedroom. After a few minutes, Lua came out of the bedroom and flopped down next to Suyeon.
"I guess you had something to do with that," she said.
"To do with what?" Suyeon asked.
"Jennie texted me just now," Lua said, "talking about how glad she was that Sei and Lua had kept us from getting in trouble, and she hoped I hadn't been mad at them about it."
"You know I agree with her," Suyeon said, being careful not to admit that she was behind Jennie's texts.
Lua sighed. "I know. And I know you're both probably right, even though I hate to admit it."
"So you're ready to stop being mad at Sei and Lucy?" Suyeon asked.
Lua was quiet.
"They can tell you'r emad at them even when you don't say anything about it," Suyeon said. "Lucy's spent the past two days on the verge of tears."
Lua took a deep breath and let it out. "Yeah, I guess I can't stay mad at them anymore. I'll talk to them when they come in."
"That'll be good," Suyeon said with a nod. "Besides you and Rina have the Twice fragrance launch tomorrow. Do you think Jennie will be there?"
Lua laughed, a sound that Suyeon had missed over the past four days. "Do you think there's any chance she wouldn't? Come on, Suyeon - it's a fashion event!"
"Well, just try to stay out of trouble," Suyeon said as she got up and headed for the kitchen.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Lua picked up two glasses of champagne and handed one to Rina. "Come on," she said, "we've got to go congratulate the members of Twice about their new fragrance."
"Certainly!" Rina said as she stood up and started leading the way across the room. Their progress was slow, because every couple of steps they'd run into someone else they'd have to stop and greet. Eventually, when Rina was starting to fear they wouldn't ever get there, they found themselves standing in front of Jihyo, the leader of Twice. They bowed deeply, then Rina said "Congratulations on launching your new fragrance! It really smells wonderful."
"Thank you," Jihyo said with a big smile. "You might want to go talk to Jeongyeon about it - she's the one who worked closest with the perfumers." She pointed out to them where Jeongyeon was standing, then turned to greet the next well-wishers.
"So. . . does Suyeon know about you and Jeongyeon?" Lua quietly asked Rina.
"Oh yes," Rina said with a nod. "The members of Twice are all very close."
They reached Jeongyeon and Rina greeted her with a hug. The profusion of flashes from cameras at the event made it obvious that this hug was going to be online within the hour. Rina whispered something in Jeongyeon's ear.
"Do you two know Jennie from Blackpink?" Jeongyeon asked Lua and Rina with her best air of innocence. "I think you'd really like her - let me introduce you."
Jeongyeon led them over to where Jennie was standing talking to Mamamo's Moonbyul. She waited patiently for the conversation to end, then tapped Jennie on the shoulder. "Jennie," she said, "do you know Rina and Lua from Weki Meki?"
"I've met them before," Jennie said, "but it's been far to long since the last time I talked to them. How are you doing, Lua?"
"Very well," Lua said, "And you?"
"Oh, I'm doing fine," Jennie said. "Have you been to the buffet? I think I've given all the interviews a girl can be expected to give in one night, so I want to go get something to eat. Want to come with me?"
"Sure," Lua said. She waved good-bye to Jeongyeon and Rina, then followed Jennie to the buffet. They each grabbed an assortment of snacks and sat down at a table in the corner.
"Wouldn't it be nice," Lua said, "if someday we didn't have to play these little games?"
"That would be wonderful," Jennie said, "but I don't think it's going to happen anytime soon."
"You're probably right," Lua said. She took a bite of spicy meatball and chewed it thoughtfully. "So. . . is there going to be a Blackpink fragrance soon?"
Jennie shook her head. "Probably not - we work with so many fashion companies that have their own fragrances, so we wouldn't want to be in competition with our sponsors."
Lua nodded. "That makes sense. We don't have any fashion company sponsors, but we don't have anyone beating down our door to make a Weki Meki fragrance, either."
"I wish they would," Jennie said. "I'd wear it."
"That's sweet of you," Lua said.
Just then a couple of members of Aespa came up and asked if they could take a selfie with Jennie. Lua offered to take their camera and take the picture, which they gladly accepted.
"You're so lucky," Jennie said. "You're still unknown enough that you can go out in public without being mobbed."
Lua nodded, though inside she didn't feel fortunate - she thought that she'd gladly give up the ability to go out without being mobbed if it meant Weki Meki could have Blackpink-like levels of success.
"Did any of your other members come with you?" Lua asked.
Jennie nodded. "Lisa was my plus-one. She's right over there with Nancy from Momoland."
"Are they. . . ?" Lua asked quietly, raising her eyebrows for emphasis.
Jennie shook her head. "No. But they should be - they both want it, but neither one wants to be the one to make the first move."
"Maybe we could help out," Lua said, "just give things a little nudge."
Jennie shook her head. "They'll figure it out eventually."
After a moment's silence, Lua asked "Do you know any good guys we could try introducing Suyeon to? She's kind of lacking in confidence after her breakup with K-Will-" (Lua had to remember that Jennie didn't know the full story behind Suyeon "dating" K-Will.) - "so I was wondering if there was someone we could fix her up on a blind date with."
"I'm not thinking of anyone off the top of my head," Jennie said. "All the guys I know at YG are too old for her. I'll think it over and let you know if I come up with anybody."
Lua nodded her thanks. "We should probably get back to circulating - I probably shouldn't monopolize you all night."
"Probably not," Jennie reluctantly agreed. "If your manager is anything like mine, she'll want you to talk to everyone in the room."
"Pretty much," Lua agreed.
"Maybe we can get together soon for a longer visit."
Lua agreed that this sounded like a great idea. She surreptitiously kissed her finger, then touched Jennie's hand. Jennie smiled at her, then they nodded and separated, looking for the next person they were supposed to talk to, when what they actually wanted to was to stay together and forget the rest of the party even existed.
"So how was your evening?" Lucy asked Lua when she and Rina came into the apartment.
"It was nice, but it was frustrating," Lua said.
"Frustrating how?" Sei asked.
"I just spent 3 hours in the same room as Jennie, but because we're supposed to be interacting with everyone there, I only got to spend 5 minutes talking to her," Lua said as she slumped down on the couch next to Lucy.
"Don't look at it that way," Rina said, "look at it as at least you got to spend 5 minutes talking to Jennie, and you got to spend 3 hours looking at her from across the room." She reached down to pull Lua up out of the couch. "Come on: We've got to get you out of this dress before you wrinkle it."
Lua waved to Lucy and Sei, then followed Rina into the bedroom.
Sei pulled out her phone and started scrolling through pictures of the event. "Hey! There's a picture of Lua and Jennie here!" she exclaimed.
"Let me see!" Lucy reach over and grabbed Sei's phone. "That caption though: 'Weki Meki Lua seeking advice from her senior, Blackpink Jennie.'"
Sei reached over to reclaim her phone. "At least the caption is nowhere near what was actually going on or else it would have been the end of both of their careers."
Lucy flopped back and looked up at the ceiling. "Are things ever going to change in Korea?"
"They're changing," Sei said, "just slowly."
"Far too slowly," Lucy agreed.
Sei leaned closer to Lucy so she could speak more quietly. "I'm glad you're not in another group. I honestly don't know how Lua and Rina stand it," she said.
Lucy reached out and pulled Sei into a hug. "You're just happy because it means you can get hugs and kisses every day."
"Well, yeah," Sei said. "Who wouldn't want that. Especially if they're coming from you. I mean, have you read the fanfic the Ki-Lings write about us?"
"No," Lucy said, looking confused. "They write fanfic about us?"
"Oh yes," Sei said, nodding emphatically. "You should read some of the things they think we get up to!" She pulled up a fanfic site on her phone and started scrolling through the stories. She loaded one of them and handed the phone to Lucy so she could read it.
Just then Lua popped her head out of the bedroom. "Sei, can I borrow your blue dress next Saturday?"
"Sure," Sei said. "What's happening next Saturday?"
"Jenni has a Chanel showcase event, and she's asked me to be her plus-one." Lua did a happy little dance in the doorway.
"Sure, you can borrow the dress," Sei said, "but I bet if you talk to Manager-nim and tell her that you're going to be Jennie's plus-one at a Chanel event, she can come up with a Chanel dress for you to wear."
"I hadn't thought of that," Lua said. "Thanks!"
Sei laughed. "Who would have thought that you would become the fashion plate of Weki Meki?"
"I know, right," Lua responded with a laugh. "If the Ki-lings only knew. . ."
"Well the let's just hope they never do," Sei said.
Just then a gasp from Lucy captured Sei's attention. She looked over and saw that Lucy was blushing.
"Is that even physically possible?" Lucy asked, holding out the phone to Sei and pointing at a passage in the fanfic.
Sei's eyebrows came down as she read, and her expression of curiosity became one of concern. "I don't know," she said, "and I don't think we should find out."
"Find out what?" Lua asked, as she walked over to the couch.
Sei started blushing even more that Lucy was. "Whether or not this is physically possible," she said, holding out her phone to Lua.
Lua's eyes got bigger and bigger as she read. "Oh my God! Did you see what happens on the next page?"
Sei and Lucy both shook their heads. Sei almost dropped the phone as she attempted to get it back from Lua. Sei and Lucy sat on the couch and read the rest of the fic with Lua reading over their shoulders. When they finished the story, they just sat there and looked at each other, trying to figure out how they felt about what they had just read.
"Can you send me the link to that?" Lua asked. "I want to share it with Jennie, see what she thinks."
"Uhhh, sure?" Sei said tentatively as she sent the story link to Lua.
As Lua wandered back to the bedroom to text Jennie, Lucy looked down at the phone. "I feel woefully inadequate now," she said. "Do Ki-lings think that's how we really are?"
"I don't think so," Sei said as she reached out and took Lucy's hand. "I think they just have vivid imaginations."
Lucy nodded and her eyes got huge. "Really vivid imaginations," she agreed.
Just then Doyeon happened to come out into the living room. "What's up with you two?" she asked. "You look like you've seen. . . well, not a ghost exactly, but certainly something strange."
"I was just showing Lucy a Weki Meki fanfic," Sei said.
"Oh, don't get me started on that," Doyeon said. "Some of them I read and I'm like 'Have you even seen a girl? That's not how our parts work!'"
"You read fanfic?" Lucy exclaimed, sounding shocked.
"Oh, sure," Doyeon said, "some of it is actually good, and then some of it is funny because it's so bad."
"Do Ki-lings think we're actually like that?" Lucy asked.
Doyeon shook her head. "Absolutely not. This is just an outlet for their imaginations, kind of like playing with dolls. But if it bothers you, don't read it - try to forget that it even exists."
"Part of me wants to do that," Lucy admitted, "but part of me wants to know."
"Well, if the 'wants to know' side wins out," Doyeon said as she head for the kitchen, "come talk to me: I can recommend some good authors, as well as point out some you should stay far away from."
Lucy slouched down in the couch and pulled Sei closer to her.
"I didn't mean to traumatize you," Sei said.
"I'm not traumatized," Lucy said. "Well, maybe a little. But mainly I'm just thinking how weird it's going to be next time we're making an appearance and there are Ki-lings there."
"I thought it was weird when I first discovered fanfic," Sei agreed, "but after a while you realize it just comes with the package of being a celebrity and you forget about it."
"Well, I guess I don't really care what they write," Lucy said, "but whatever they write, I'm not calling you 'mommy.'"
"Really?" Sei asked, her eyes twinkling mischievously.
Lucy shook her head. "Nope. Not my kink."
"I know what some of your kinks are," Sei said, looking up at Lucy. "Are there any others I should be aware of?"
Lucy started blushing again. "Look at the time," she said, checking the time on Sei's phone. "We've got to get to bed. No time to talk about this now."
As Lucy got up from the couch, Sei grabbed her hand. "Hey," she said, "I just want you to know - we don't ever have to talk about this if you don't want to."
Lucy nodded, her blush deepening. "I think I want to," she said, "only just not tonight." She leaned down and gave Sei a kiss. "And thanks for being so understanding. And it really is my bedtime - I don't want to be grumpy and tired on the morning."
Sei stood up and gave Lucy a hug. "Thanks for trusting me," she said.
Lucy looked concerned. "But what if it turns out I like something weird?"
Sei shrugged. "I might think some of the things that turn you on are weird, but I wouldn't stop loving you."
"That's good to know," Lucy said. "I mean, I don't think any of the things that I like are too weird, but it's nice to have that assurance."
Sei smiled and let Lucy lead her to the bedroom.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Yoojung looked up from the picture she was drawing when she saw Suyeon walk into the room. Their leader had the most confused look on her face that Yoojung could possibly imagine.
'What's wrong, Suyeon?" Yoojung asked. "You look confused."
Suyeon flopped down on the couch next to Yoojung. "I just had the strangest phone call," she said.
Yoojung waited for Suyeon to go on, but Suyeon just sat that quietly until Yoojung prompted her. "And?"
"Oh!" Suyeon said, shaking her head as if startled. "I just got a call from IU," she said. After letting that sentence hang in the air for a moment, she went on. "She said she got my number from Jennie, and she wanted to fix me up on a date with Eric Nam."
"Eric Nam?" Yoojung said. "He's cute, but he's older."
"Not as much older as K.Will," Suyeon said.
"So what are you going to do?" Yoojung asked.
Suyeon shrugged and threw her hands up. "What can I do?" she asked. "When Korea's Little Sister sets you up for a date with Eric Nam, you go on a date with Eric Nam."
"Yay!" Joojung squealed excitedly. "So when are you going out with him?"
"Tonight," Suyeon said. "He'll be here to pick me up in. . ." She checked the time on her phone. "Three hours."
Yoojung jumped up from the couch. "Three hours gives us plenty of time. You go get a shower. I'll make sure your little black dress is ready, and I'll get Rina in here to do your hair and Sei to do your makeup."
Suyeon looked up at her from the couch. "Only one problem: What about Manager-nim?"
"What about her?" Yoojung asked. "When you tell her IU set this up, she'll be so impressed at the company we're keeping that she won't even think to be mad at you. Besides, it's not like it's just any guy - it's Eric Nam. He was a GQ Man of the Year!"
"But. . ." Suyeon protested.
"But nothing," Yoojung said, grabbing Suyeon's hand and pulling her to her feet. "Tell you what. You go get your shower and I'll call Manager-nim."
"But. . ." Suyeon protested again.
"But nothing," Yoojung said as she pushed Suyeon in the direction of the bathroom. "You go get your shower and I'll take care of this."
Three hours later, Suyeon was in her little black dress, Sei had done her makeup, and Rina had done her hair. She was sitting on the couch waiting for Eric to knock at the door. Yoojung was sitting on one side of her holding one of her hands and Elly was on the other side holding the other.
'What am I going?" Suyeon asked.
"You're waiting to go on a date with one of Korea's most eligible bachelors," Elly said.
Suyeon turned to Yoojung. "And Manager-nim was okay with this?" she asked.
"I can't remember the last time I've ever heard her so happy," Yoojung said. "She said for the rest of us not to go getting ideas, but this was a great chance for you, especially since IU had set it up."
Suyeon was quiet for a moment. Suddenly there was a knock at the door. Suyeon was about to jump up and get it, but Doyeon got there first.
"You must be Eric," she said as she opened the door and admitted Eric Nam.
"That's me," he said. "And you must be Doyeon."
"Somebody's been doing his homework," Doyeon said with a laugh and she led Eric over to Suyeon, who stood up quickly.
"Hi Suyeon," said Eric, obviously nervous. He was holding a bouquet, which he handed to Suyeon. "These are for you."
"Oh. Uh. Thank you." Suyeon was almost totally at a loss for words.
It's uncertain how long the nervous couple would have stood there if Doyeon hadn't taken action. "I'll go put these in some water for you," she said, taking the flowers out of Suyeon's hands and herding Suyeon and Eric out the door.
"Have fun you two," she called out as she shut the door.
She went and put the flowers in a vase, then came back to find that the others had already started dissecting Suyeon and Eric's first interaction.
"I think it went well for a first meeting," Yoojung said.
"Especially since he had to meet her in front of all her members," Elly added.
"What do you all have planned for the rest of the evening?" Lucy asked.
"Will's busy tonight, so I'm just staying in and hanging out," Elly said.
"I'll be watching dramas and texting," Rina said.
"Me too," Lua said, giving Rina a high five.
Yoojung looked at Doyeon. "I don't know what we're going to be doing this evening."
Lucy looked at Sei, who nodded. "Do you want to come with us?" she asked Doyeon and Yoojung.
"Where are you going?" Doyeon asked.
"Dinner at Sprouts," Sei said, "followed by a walk through the night market."
"That sounds good to me," Doyeon said. "You up for it Yoojung?"
"Sure," Yoojung said. "It's all casual places so we don't even have to figure out what to wear."
The two couples gathered their purses and shoes and got ready to leave.
"Have fun you guys," Lua said. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do."
"Don't worry," Sei said with a grin, "we've got our unnies with us."
"Yeah, and you're going to have to keep your unnies out of trouble," Rina said. She and Lua both collapsed in a fit of laughter.
"Later," Lucy said, as she led the way out of the apartment.
Several hours later, Eric was dropping Suyeon off at Weki Meki's apartment. He held her hands and looked into her eyes.
"I'd like to kiss you," he said quietly.
"I'd like that," she replied, "but we're on camera here and I don't know if my manager would approve."
"Your agency keeps you on a pretty short leash, huh?" he asked.
She nodded. "You've got no idea. Most of my members are still under a dating ban."
"I'm glad you're not still under a dating ban," he said.
"I'm just barely out from under it - I had to get my manager's permission to go out with you." She shrank down, suddenly feeling very immature because of the restrictions her agency still had her under.
"Will you have to ask your manager if you can go out with me again?" he asked, stepping a little closer.
She shook her head. "No. Once I'm cleared to date you, I'm cleared to date you. So you'd like to take me out again?"
He nodded. "Of course. I think you're really great." He leaned down so he could whisper in her ear. "And maybe next time I could kiss you, if we could find a place away from your agency's cameras."
"That sounds nice," she said. "You've got my number?"
He nodded. "IU gave it to me."
Suyeon blushed. "I think I really owe her thanks," she said.
"I'm glad you feel that way about it - I'd hate to think of you being mad at her for setting this up." He shuffled awkwardly from foot to foot.
She leaned a little closer to him. "I don't think my manager would mind if you gave me a small kiss," she said.
"I don't know," he said, "I'd hate to get you in trouble."
Moving quickly, she went up on her tiptoes and kissed him, then ducked away, blushing. "Good night," she said, opening the apartment door and backing into the apartment.
Suyeon hadn't been in the apartment a minute when Lucy, Sei, Yoojung, and Doyeon came in behind her.
"Oh, hey guys!" Suyeon said. "You just missed seeing Eric!"
"Actually," Sei said, "we spent the last few minutes hiding around the corner so we didn't interrupt your good-bye."
"And what was with that good-bye, Suyeon?" Doyeon asked. "What's up with putting the fear of management in Eric, then kissing him anyway?"
Suyeon threw her hands up. "I don't know," she said. "I don't know what I'm doing here. This is my first real public relationship! With K.Will he knew what to do, and it was all fake anyway, and with Moonbin we were sneaking around the dating ban, so we couldn't be seen in public! Now I'm apparently dating Eric, but I'm having to do it in public, so I don't know what to do - if it was up to me, I'd drag him in here, take him back to my room, and see what happens. But I know Manager-nim wouldn't approve of that. And I really like Eric - I don't want Manager-nim to tell me I have to stop seeing him."
"Okay, Suyeon," Doyeon said. "Just stop for a second so you can breathe. It's going to be okay."
Suyeon nodded.
"So your date went well?" Lucy asked.
"Oh, it was great," Suyeon said. 'He took me out to dinner, then we went for a walk in the park and ended up the night by seeing a band at a small underground club."
"That does sound great," Yoojung said.
"I've got to call IU and thank her for this," Suyeon said, pulling out her phone and heading off to her room.
Doyeon sat down on the couch and pulled Yoojung down next to her. "Of course," she said, "we're next, you realize."
"What do you mean?" Yoojung asked.
"Soon Manager-nim will decide you and I are old enough to date, and we'll be released from the dating ban," Doyeon said, putting her arm around Yoojung.
Sei and Lucy sat down at the other end of the couch. "What are you going to do?" Sei asked.
Doyeon shrugged. "Hopefully there are enough gay guys in K-pop to provide cover for us."
"IU would know," Yoojung said. "If Manager-nim decides we need to start dating, we can ask her - and maybe K.Will - to help us out."
"It's such a pain," Lucy said. "I wish we could just be honest about who we're dating."
"I know," Doyeon said. "But this is what we have to do right now."
Lua came out of the kitchen just then, "What is what we have to do?"
"Hide who we're truly dating because of homophobia," Lucy said.
"Oh, that," Lua said, slumping against the wall. "Why do you think Jennie and G-Dragon are seen together so much?"
Lucy's jaw dropped. "G-Dragon is gay?"
Sei laughed. "Girl, we are going to have to get your gaydar adjusted!"
Lucy shrugged. "I can't tell what shows that a guy is gay! Frankly, I never cared that much."
"Well, you've got time," Sei said. "You'll be the last one that Manager-nim lets date."
"That's good," Lucy said. "I don't know what I'll do if you have to start going out with a guy."
Sei leaned forward and kissed Lucy. "You'll just have to know that you're always first in my heart."
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Sei sat looking glumly out the window when Doyeon came up behind her. "Hey," Doyeon said. When Sei didn't respond, Doyeon repeated herself louder, "Hey. Sei!" After the third repetition, Sei shook her head as if waking up and turned to Doyeon.
"What's up with you?" Doyeon asked. "You're just sitting there staring out the window and I had a hard time getting your attention. Is something wrong?"
Sei leaned back and crossed her arms. "I'm just frustrated. Lucy and I were supposed to go to the park today, but it's been raining all day."
Doyeon nodded. "Yeah. It's not the best weather for a day off." She looked around. "Where's Lucy?"
Sei gestured vaguely in the direction of the big bedroom. "She got so bored she fell asleep."
Doyeon smiled down at Sei. "Tell you what," she said, "I was about to go to the kitchen to bake some cupcakes. Do you want to come along so you can decorate a special cupcake for Lucy?"
Sei smiled. "Sure! Sounds like fun!" She got up and followed Doyeon into the kitchen.
They mixed up the batter and put the cupcakes on to bake, then they started mixing up the frosting.
"So," Sei said, "I don't think I've ever heard the story of how you and Yoojung got together. You've been together since you were in I.O.I right?"
Doyeon shook her head. "Since before that - we started dating during the filming of Produce 101."
"We've got a few more minutes until the cupcakes are done," Sei said, sitting down and leaning on the table with her chin in her hands, "how about telling me the story?"
Doyeon waved dismissively. "Oh, you don't want to hear that!"
"Sure I do!" Sei said, bouncing in her seat. "How did it happen? Was it love at first sight?"
Doyeon laughed. "Love at first sight? Not hardly!"
"Well then how did it happen?" Sei asked.
"Well," Doyeon said, "you remember what it was like at the beginning of Produce 101 - the producers were trying to deal with the fact that they had 101 girls to sort through and get ranked as soon as possible."
"I remember that," Sei said, "but I got eliminated fairly early, so I don't know much of what went on beyond that."
"When it got down to about 40 girls, the producers slowed down the pace of eliminations, so you had time to start getting to know your competitors, "Doyeon said, "and there was one girl who seemed to always get in the way of whatever I was trying to do. If I wanted to sing a particular song, she was already learning it. If I wanted to do the rap for a particular number, she had already written one. She was always the first to learn any new choreography and was a favorite of the producers and instructors. This girl had become my arch-enemy - I couldn't stand her and I'd do anything to get her eliminated."
"And that was Yoojung?" Sei asked.
Doyeon nodded. "That was Yoojung."
"So what happened," Sei asked. "How did things get turned around?"
Doyeon stared off into the distance, thinking for a moment. "One night, I was sneaking back to the dormitory after curfew - I'd been practicing the choreography extra hard so hopefully I could get a solo in the next episode - when I almost tripped over someone who was sitting in the stairwell crying."
"And that was Yoojung again?" Sei asked.
Doyeon nodded. "That was Yoojung. She was crying because she missed her family and because none of the other girls wanted to be friends with her. But she was so pitiful, sitting in the stairwell, curled up into a little ball and crying, that I couldn't help but feel sorry for her. I sat down on the stairs next to her, put my arm around her shoulder, and let her cry it out."
"And that was when you fell for her?" Sei asked.
Doyeon shook her head. "Not quite. But it was when I stopped hating her, and I started keeping an eye on her. And then I noticed that she wasn't as bad as I'd thought - yes, she always did well in the competition, but it was because she worked hard and she was just that good, not because she ever tried to sabotage anyone else, like some of the girls did."
"And then you feel for her?" Sei asked.
"I was starting to," Doyeon agreed. "But I didn't really fall until one night when we'd gotten down to about 20 girls. All the girls in our dorm were playing 'Truth or Dare,' which mainly centered around daring each other to kiss one of the other girls, and Somi dared me to kiss Yoojung. So I did, and she blushed - you know how she does - and the game went on. When it was Somi's turn again, she dared me to kiss Yoojung again. And then Mina dared me to kiss her, and then So-hye, and, well, by that point the game had turned from 'Truth or Dare' to 'Let's Make Doyeon and Yoojung Kiss.' As we were getting ready for bed, Somi leaned over to me and said 'It's about time you two got together - you were going to drive the rest of us crazy with the will they/won't they stuff.' And I thought about it, and I realized I really did like Yoojung that way. But I didn't know if she felt the same way, and even if she did, I didn't know what to do about it, so I just finished brushing my teeth and then went to bed. Then the next thing I knew it was morning, and I was waking up to someone kissing me. I sat up all of a sudden and Yoojung suddenly sat down on the foot of my bed. She looked panicked. She said Somi had told her to kiss me to wake me up, and then she started apologizing, and she was on the verge of tears, and then-"
"Then you kissed her?" Sei interrupted.
"Not quite," Doyeon said. "First I threw my pillow at Somi, then I kissed Yoojung."
"And the others never said anything?" Sei asked.
Doyeon shook her head. "Most of them were just as gay as we were, they just hadn't found a girlfriend yet, and even the ones that were straight knew that it was us against the companies and so would never tell."
"That's even better than love at first sight!" Sei exclaimed. "To think, you owe the whole thing to Somi!"
Just then the oven timer went off. They took the cupcakes out of the oven and put them on cooling racks until they were cool enough to decorate.
Lucy and Sei were sitting looking out the window. Lucy was holding the cupcake Sei had made for her. On the top of the cupcake, Sei had used white and yellow icing to make Gudetama, the lazy egg.
'It's just so cute!" Lucy said. "I don't know if I can eat it!"
"Well you better eat it," Sei said. "That's what I made it for!"
"Okay, I'll eat it. But first I'm going to do this:" She pulled out her phone and took a picture of the cupcake, then added a caption "Look what my friend Sei made for me today! Be good to your friends, Ki-Lings!"
"There," she said, as she hit the button to post it to Insta. "Now I can eat it." She took a big bite of the cupcake obliterating Gudetama's head. Then she held the cupcake out for Sei to have a bite. "And that's all we can have to right now," she said, getting up and going to the kitchen to put the cupcake away.
"What's wrong?" Sei asked. "You usually love cake! Are you not feeling well?"
Lucy shook her head. "I feel fine, and the cake was delicious. It's just that-" Just then the doorbell rang. "I'd better get that," Lucy said, heading for the door.
Sei heard Lucy talking to somebody at the door, then Lucy was back, carrying two bulging shopping bags. "What's all this?" Sei asked.
Lucy put one bag on the kitchen table and the other on the kitchen counter. "Since it was raining too much for us to go out today, I ordered food from Sprouts," she said.
Sei laughed. "What's so funny?" Lucy asked, as she unpacked the bag on the table, then dragged the table over by the window.
"I remember when I brought home the flyer about Sprouts, before they opened, and you didn't want to try it because there wouldn't be any meat, and now it's one of your favorite restaurants!" Sei said with a laugh.
Lucy retrieved a candle from one of the kitchen drawers, placed it in the middle of the table, and lit it. "That was just because I hadn't tried it yet," Lucy said. She pulled out a chair for Sei, made sure Sei was seated comfortably, then sat down opposite her.
"So what's in the other bag?" Sei asked, as she helped Lucy open all the different containers of food.
"You'll see," Lucy said with a mysterious smile.
Sei and Lucy had just started eating when Suyeon came out of her bedroom. "What smells so good?" she asked as she walked into the kitchen.
Without looking away from Sei, Lucy pointed to the bag on the counter. "Food for unnies is in the bag on the counter," she said. "Sei and I are having a romantic candlelight dinner for two over here."
Suyeon picked up the bag of food on the counter and headed for the common room. "I'll make sure the other unnies don't bother you," she said.
"You thought of everything," Sei exclaimed. "When did you plan all this?"
"When I was in the bedroom pretending to take a nap this afternoon," Lucy said.
Sei's jaw dropped. "You were only pretending to take a nap for all that time?"
Lucy shook her head. "At first I was pretending - it was the only way I could think of to get you to leave me alone for long enough for me to place the order - and then after that I really did fall asleep. It's just been such a grey, dreary day."
Sei smiled at her. "Well, you certainly brightened it up!" She picked up a piece of fried tofu with her chop sticks and popped it into Lucy's mouth. "What did I ever do to deserve a girlfriend like you?"
"I don't know," Lucy said, "but maybe if you apologize for it, it'll make things better."
Sei giggle-snorted at this. "You're so silly," she said.
They ate in silence for a few minutes after that, then Sei exclaimed "Oh! I just remembered! While we were baking this afternoon, Doyeon told me the story of how she and Yoojung got together!"
"They got together when they were in I.O.I, didn't they?" Lucy asked.
Sei shook her head. "No, it was before that, when they were still at Produce 101." And she told Lucy the story of how Doyeon gradually warmed up to Yoojung, and how Somi had organized the game of Truth or Dare where their fellow contestants had basically forced them together, and how Jooyung had woken Doyeon up with a kiss the next morning.
"That's a really sweet story," Lucy said. "It's a shame we can't tell the Ki-Lings about it - I think they'd love to hear that."
"Well, maybe someday we'll be able to," Sei said. "Things are getting better."
"That's true," Lucy said with a nod, "and in the meantime, we know the story."
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Lua stepped out of the dressing room and twirled, showing off the green dress she was trying on.
Jennie shook her head. "No. . . Let me see the blue one again. I think I like that one better."
Lua pouted. "You're just trying to make this take longer!" she whined.
"Of course I am," Jennie said calmly. "If you find a dress before dinnertime, then I don't have an excuse for taking you out to dinner, and this all ends well before I'm ready for it to."
Lua looked around, then leaned closer to Jennie and whispered. "Couldn't we just ditch the press and go somewhere on our own?"
Jennie shook her head. "If I'm too unfindable, then they'll work harder to find me. As it is, by going out in their view, for example with my junior Weki Meki Lua, who I'm teaching about fashion, then they'll actually leave me alone when I want to be unfindable." She paused for a second. "You're not getting out of showing me the blue dress again."
Lua pouted, but turned and headed back into the dressing room.
Jennie looked around. She spotted at least 4 photographers following her, which meant there were at least 6, because some of them were always better at hiding than she was at seeking. She checked the time on her phone. After they bought the blue dress - the green one was nowhere near as flattering, even if Lua did like it more - they'd need to go get some shoes to match it. After that, a stop at the makeup counter should eat up just enough time that they could go for an early dinner, which would get them some privacy while they were in the restaurant. She nodded - having everything all planned out, she turned back to waiting for Lua to come out.
"Ready or not," Lua called through the curtain, "here I come in the blue dress again." She parted the curtain and stepped out, doing a little runway walk in front of Jennie, who applauded joyfully.
"Very good," Jennie said. "Now get out of it so we can buy it, then we'll go get you some shoes to go with it."
"I'm pretty sure I've got some shoes that will go with it," Lua said.
Jennie shook her head. "No, I'm pretty sure you don't. Anyway, new shoes shouldn't take more than about half an hour, which means after a stop at the makeup counter it will be time for dinner."
Lua smiled at Jennie. "You thought of everything, didn't you?"
Jennie nodded. "It's what I do. No go get back in your clothes so we can get on with our shopping."
As Jennie was waiting for Lua to get back into her clothes, she looked around and happened to see IU and Suyeon shopping in the same store. She waved at them, and they came over to see her. Being conscious of the photographers surrounding them, she made sure to bow deeply to her senior.
"What's going on with you two?" Jennie asked.
"IU decided I needed a new dress for my second date with Eric Nam," Suyeon said.
Jennie smiled at IU. "Still playing K-pop world matchmaker?"
IU laughed. "It just comes naturally to me - I haven't been wrong yet. Are you still happy with the guy I fixed you up with?"
"Certainly," Jennie said. "As you know, we have a very special relationship."
IU turned to Suyeon. "So Suyeon, so that I can plan ahead: Will any of your juniors need a special relationship? I know Elly's spoken for, but the others will probably come out from under the dating ban soon, and it takes extra effort to find someone special."
Suyeon nodded. "All of them."
IU's eyes widened. "All of them?"
Suyeon nodded.
IU leaned closer to Suyeon and quietly asked "You are aware of what I'm really talking about, aren't you?"
Suyeon nodded. "All of them."
IU was quiet for a moment as she took this in. "I'm going to have to work extra hard to find the right guys for the girls of Weki Meki."
"You've got some time," Suyeon reassured her. "Doyeon and Yoojung will probably come out from under the ban in the next year, then Sei and Rina that year after that, and then not until the year after that for Lucy."
IU nodded, then pulled out her phone to take some notes. "That does make things easier. I think I've got some likely candidates in mind. You be sure to let me know when you management starts talking about letting out of the ban, won't you Suyeon?"
Suyeon nodded, but before she had a chance to say anything, Lua came out of the dressing room carrying the blue and green dresses and joined them, bowing respectfully to IU and then to Suyeon.
Jennie took the green dress out of Lua's hand and handed it to Suyeon. "Why don't you try this one first? The color should suit you. Now, please excuse us - we've got to go find Lua some shoes to go with her new dress."
After Jennie and Lua were gone, IU turned to Suyeon and said "Well, you might as well start by trying that one on - if Jennie thinks it will suit you, she's almost certainly right."
Doyeon knocked on the big bedroom door. Upon hearing Lucy call out "Come in!" she opened the door and let herself in. Sei and Lucy looked down at her from Lucy's bed.
"Hi unnie!" Lucy said. "What's up?"
"Oh, um. . ." Doyeon hesitated. "Well, Yoojung's having one of her pain flares again, and-"
"You need us to go get some medicine for her?" Sei asked.
"No, nothing like that," Doyeon said. "She's already got all the medicine she needs, and I've got her sitting up in her bed drinking a cup of tea. No, what I need your help with is this:" She held out a silver embossed card. "Yoojung and I reserved a private room at Crimson Dragon for tonight, and they won't let us reschedule it, so since we can't use it, we wanted you to have it."
Lucy reached down and took the card. "Thank you, unnie!" she said. "We've never been to Crimson Dragon."
Doyeon nodded. "I'm not surprised - it's almost impossible to get a reservation there."
"What's the dress code?" Sei asked. "Do we even have anything to wear?"
"The ads say 'Dress to impress' - I'm sure you've got something appropriate. She walked over to the closets and pulled out a dress for Sei and another one for Lucy. "These should do nicely," she said, "with black shoes with as much of a heel as you can stand."
"So no heels," Sei said.
"Oh, come on," Lucy said. "Can't you wear a little heel? For me? You know I love the way they make your legs look."
"But I don't love the way they make my feet hurt," Sei said with a pout.
"No, Lucy's right," Doyeon said. "If you never wear heels, you'll never get used to them." She looked down, then bent down to pick up a pair of shoes from the floor of Sei's closet. "These should do nicely," she said, holding up a pair of black heels.
Sei blanched. "Those?" she asked. "I've got some with a bit less of a heel."
Doyeon shook her head. "Nope. It's these or you don't go."
Sei looked at Lucy. She didn't want to wear these shoes, but she really didn't want to disappoint Lucy, who looked overjoyed at the possibility of going to Crimson Dragon. She nodded. "Okay. I can do that."
Doyeon hung the dresses she had picked from Sei's bed, then turned back to Sei and Lucy. "Have a great time, but don't do anything that would cause trouble for Weki Meki," she said, her face all seriousness. "I don't want to see any pictures of you on the web tomorrow that hint at you being anything other than friends."
Sei nodded. "We can do that."
"Besides," Lucy added, "most people are so busy with their own lives that they won't even notice anything we do."
Doyeon fixed Lucy with her most penetrating stare. "Most people won't," she said, "but photographers will. It's like they're scandal-seeking missiles."
Lucy saluted. "Sure thing!"
Doyeon lowered her eyebrows. "I'm serious."
Lucy did her best to paste a serious look on her face. "Okay. We'll be careful."
"Good," Doyeon said with a decisive nod. "And have fun!" She smiled up at Sei and Lucy and left the room.
Sei leaned close to Lucy. "I didn't want to say anything while Doyeon was here," she said quietly, "but I've never heard of Crimson Dragon."
Lucy's eyebrows shot up. "Really?" She pulled out her phone to find some pictures to show Sei. "It's this new restaurant-slash-nightclub that just opened last month and has become the place to see and be seen. Look here's Jennie and G-Dragon there. And here are the members of Twice in the VIP room! And here's-"
"Okay, Lucy, I get the idea," Sei said, wrapping her hands around Lucy's. "I was afraid it would be that sort of thing."
"What?" Lucy stared into Sei's eyes.
Sei looked down. "I get nervous going out to places like that. It feels like everyone's looking at me."
Lucy looked out and stroked Sei's hair. "But, sweetie, you're a celebrity. That's part of the job - for people to look at you."
"I know," Sei said, "but it's different when we're onstage or at an event. When we're just out at a club, I wish we could just relax and be ourselves."
"And there are thousands of people watching at home who wish they could be us," Lucy said. "Nobody gets everything they want. This is the price we have to pay to be able to perform."
Sei lay down on the pillow and looked up at Lucy. "You're right," she said.
"And besides," Lucy added, "we've got private room. Anytime things get to be too much for you, we can just retreat there. Now smile for me - we're going to have a great time tonight."
Sei smiled. "I always have a great time when I'm with you."
Lucy smiled back. "I'm glad to hear it. Now we'd better start getting ready!"
"Do I really have to wear the shoes Doyeon picked out for me?" Sei asked.
"Unless you've got some with a higher heel that you'd like to wear," Lucy said with a decisive nod and a smirk.
"Okay," Sei said, "but you've got to wear heels too."
"I was already planning on it," Lucy said as she climbed down that ladder. "I wouldn't ask you to do something that I won't do. Besides, if the unnies find out you've got problems with wearing heels, Suyeon will make you wear them all the time until you get used to them."
"She'd do that, wouldn't she?" Sei asked, pausing halfway down the ladder.
Lucy nodded. "She would. But now forget about being nervous and forget about unnies and all that, and let's just concentrate on how cute you're going to me and how much fun we're going to have tonight."
Sei went up on her tiptoes and have Lucy a kiss. "It's gonna be great," she whispered.
Rina jumped when her phone beeped as she was eating her ramune. Who could be messaging her? She knew it wasn't Jeongyeon - Twice had to do a promotion tonight, so they couldn't get together.
She picked up her phone and looked at the screen. It was Jeongyeon! "I have a surprise for you," it said. "A taxi will be waiting downstairs for you at 8:00."
Rina looked at the clock - she had barely 10 minutes to get ready! She put on a dress that she knew Jeongyeon always liked, then did her hair and makeup. She checked the clock again - she had just enough time to get downstairs before the taxi arrived.
Rina was standing on the sidewalk waiting when the taxi pulled up. The driver greeted her by name and helped her into the back seat.
"Do you know where we're going?" Rina asked.
The driver nodded. "Yes, miss. I was given instructions of exactly where to go."
First they stopped at a coffee shop, where the driver ran inside and bought an iced americano and an iced mocha. He handed the tray containing the two drinks to Rina. "I was instructed to buy this for you," he explained.
He started driving again, taking them through the back streets of Gangnam. In no time, Rina was thoroughly lost. What was Jeongyeon planning? Eventually he stopped behind a tall building with a staircase on the side leading up to the third floor.
"Up those stairs and through the door, miss," the driver said.
"What happens then?" Rina asked.
"I don't know," the driver said. "I was just told to get you to this point."
After thanking the driver, Rina started climbing the stairs. Again she wondered what Jeongyeon had planned. She reached the top of the stairs, made her way through the door, and found herself in a small empty room. She saw a door on the other side of the room and was about to try it when it opened and Jeongyeon appeared.
"I'm so glad you're here!" Jeongyeon exclaimed.
"Where is here?" Rina asked. "You've got me so confused."
"We're at the back of Mnet's broadcasting facilities," Jeongyeon explained. "I learned this evening that there's a private room up here that idols sometimes use to entertain. I made nice with the stage manager and was able to get access to it. Follow me." She took Rina's hand and led her deeper into the building.
After passing down a veritable maze of hallways, Jeongyeon showed Rina into a small but nicely furnished room. One entire wall was a window.
"This window is one-way glass," Jeongyeon explained. "When you look through it, you'll be able to see the stage, but no one can see you. And when I'm not on stage, I'll be able to sneak up here and spend some time with you."
Just then Jeongyeon's phone beeped. "Not much time, I'm afraid," she said. "I've got to get downstairs for a sound check, but I'll see you again in a few minutes." She kissed Rina on the cheek and rushed out the door.
Rina smiled, still feeling Jeongyeon's kiss on her cheek. What a sweet thing for Jeongyeon to have arranged this. So much work for such a small amount of time together. "She must really want to see me," Rina thought.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Lucy and Sei were in a cab on their way to Crimson Dragon when Lucy's phone beeped.
"I wonder who that could be," Sei said.
"Well if you'll give me a second to get my phone out of my purse, I can tell you," Lucy replied. She pulled her phone out and looked at it. "It's Suyeon. She wants to know if we want to meet her and IU for dinner tonight."
"Oh!" Sei pouted. "IU is the sweetest unnie in the world! I wish we could see her tonight, but we've got this reservation and I'll feel bad if you don't get to go to Crimson Dragon."
Lucy smiled. "There may be a way we can do both!" She started texting Suyeon back, her fingers flying over her phone's screen.
"How would we do that?" Sei asked, puzzled.
"Did you even read the reservation card?" Lucy asked as she continued to text.
"No," Sei admitted, as she fished around in her purse for the card. "I just figured it was a confirmation number or something that they'd need at the restaurant."
Lucy shook her head. "Nope. It's got everything we need to know about our evening. Read the fourth line down, right under where it says 'Private room.'"
"Capacity 6?" Sei read.
"I don't know if this is the smallest size private room they have or if Doyeon just booked a bigger room because reasons," she said, "but it means we can have Suyeon and IU meet us there and would actually still be able to have two more people in the room."
Sei's eyes lit up. "So we get to do both things!" she exclaimed.
"Hopefully," Lucy said with a nod, "but I need you to be quiet so I finish making the arrangements with Suyeon."
Sei leaned back next to Lucy and read the rest of the reservation card. Most of it was pretty self-explanatory, but there were things she had no idea what they meant. For example, what was a corkage fee? Sei figured she could ask Lucy about it once Lucy finished texting. She could be perfectly happy if she never went anywhere fancier than Sprouts, but she knew Lucy liked going to fancy restaurants like this, so she needed to learn all these things.
"There!" Lucy said, shutting of her phone with a flourish and sticking it back in her purse. "It's all arranged - Suyeon and IU will meet us at Crimson Dragon. They'll be a few minutes later than us, but Suyeon told me what appetizers to order so we won't have to wait too long for the food."
Sei looked puzzled. "But how will they get in, if we're already inside with the reservation card?"
"We'll just tell the host or hostess that we're expecting two more members of our party," Lucy said, "and they'll bring them back to the room when they arrive."
"I hate to bother them like that," Sei said, her face serious. "Couldn't we just wait at the front of the restaurant for them and then all go in together?"
"Don't want to bother them?" Lucy laughed gleefully at this. "Sei, it is literally their job to meet guests at the front of the restaurant and show them to their room or table."
"I guess," Sei said uncertainly, "I just don't want to be a bother."
Lucy raised an eyebrow. "Sei, when you see what they're charging us at the end of the night, you're going to wish you'd been more of a bother."
Sei shook her head. "Maybe I just don't get fancy restaurants," she said. "I can't imagine wanting to be a bother."
Lucy reached out and took Sei's hand. "I didn't mean it literally," she said. "I just meant, the staff at a place like Crimson Dragon are well paid for doing their jobs and they go out of their way to make sure their guests are happy."
Sei looked dubious.
"Trust me," Lucy said. "I know you. You're not going to be bothering anybody. And if, by some weird freaky chance it looks like you're about to bother somebody, I'll stop you, okay?"
Sei nodded. "Okay. I wanted to come tonight because I knew you wanted to come, but I just don't really know about fancy places like this and I don't really feel like I'd belong there."
Lucy squeezed Sei's hand. "Not to worry," she said. "Tonight I'll see to it that you feel like you belong there."
Rina watched through the one-way glass as Twice finished their performance. They were all wonderful, but of course she especially couldn't keep her eyes off Jyeongyeon. A few minutes after Twice left the stage, Jeongyeon walked into the room.
"How did we do?" she asked Rina.
Rina rolled her eyes as she walked across the room to Jeongyeon. "You were great, as always."
Jeongyeon looked intently at Rina. "Really?" she asked, a pleading note in her voice. "I know the others did well. Did I do okay?"
Rina reached out and took Jeongyeon's hands. "You were wonderful - I couldn't keep my eyes off of you."
Now it was Jeongyeon's turn to roll her eyes. "And you're not biased at all."
They both laughed at this.
"Anyway," Jeongyeon said, "I've got to head back down for the end of the show. But afterward, some of us are planning to go out clubbing. Do you want to come with?"
Rina nervously chewed her bottom lip for a second as she thought it over. "Can you help me get home by curfew?" She felt silly and immature for still having a curfew, but Jeongyeon had never made a big deal about it, which was nice.
Jeongyeon made an X on her chest with her finger. "Cross my heart, I'll have you back by curfew. Now, wait right here and in ten minutes we'll be on our way." She leaned in for an air kiss - couldn't risk messing up her makeup before going back out on stage - then skipped out the door.
Rina walked back over to the window so she could watch the end of the show. All the groups that had performed that day gathered on the stage so that the hosts could announce the winners . Rina was not at all surprised to see that Twice won, but she will still extremely happy to see it. She bounced up and down while quietly clapping her hands - she made sure not to make any noise because she didn't know how soundproof the room was, and since she could hear what was happening on stage, she thought there was a chance that someone might hear her.
After the show ended, everyone had to say their good-byes, but soon Jeongyeon rushed back into the room. She was had changed into jeans and a T-shirt and wearing a Twice hoodie over it. She tossed an identical hoodie to Rina. "Put that on," she said. "Until we get in the van, you're Chaeyoung."
Rina must have looked as confused as she felt, because as she was putting on the hoodie, Jeongyeon was explaining. "You're not supposed to be here, remember? Well, Chaeyoung already sneaked out with her boyfriend, so you can use her hoodie to hide until we get to the van."
Rina finished putting on the hoodie and zipped it up, noticing that it had "Twice Chaeyoung" embroidered on the front.
"Very good," Jeongyeon said, as she stepped forward and pulled up the hood, then grabbed Rina's hand and led her out into the corridor.
Rina wondered how many times Jeongyeon had been on this show to have learned her way around the studio as well as she had - she kept them on back corridors where they wouldn't encounter as many people but still managed to get them to Twice's van before any of her members. She climbed into the van and pulled Rina in after her, leading her to the back row of seats. "Jihyo and Nayeon usually sit back here with me," Jeongyeon said, "and usually Momo too, but she's going to have to sit in another seat tonight."
Rina nodded, trying to take in everything that had happened tonight. What had started out to be a night staying in and watching Jeongyeon on TV had turned into an adventure.
Lua sat across the table from Lua in the small restaurant where Jennie had taken her for dinner. She looked at the menu, but found herself unable to focus because of the excitement of having spent the whole afternoon with Jennie and Jennie having found a way to extend that into the evening by stretching out the shopping until it was late enough that she could plausibly take Lua out to dinner. Finally, she just couldn't deal with the menu anymore, so she closed it and put it down on the table.
"You've decided what you want already?" Jennie asked.
Lua shook her head. "There are too many things on the menu. I just don't have the brainpower to deal with it right now."
Jennie had seen Lua get overwhelmed by choices like this before. "You want to me order for both of us?"
Lua nodded. She wished she didn't get overwhelmed with things like this, but she did. She was just grateful that Jennie had seen it before and didn't reject her for it. She watched as Jennie called the waitress over and said something in Japanese. The waitress smiled, bowed, then took their menus and headed back to the kitchen.
"What did you order?" Lua asked.
"Shabu-shabu," Jennie said. "It seemed like the right sort of thing to eat this evening, especially since it can take an hour to eat it all." She smiled and Lua felt herself melting.
"I wish you didn't have to go back to your apartment right after dinner," Lua said.
"I know," Jennie said, "but I've got things I've got to do tonight in order to keep my company happy with me. I'm sure you can relate."
Lua nodded. "Sometimes I wish for the day when my schedule will be all mine, but then I stop myself, because I know that day won't come until my career is over."
"Or at least until you're much further along in it. I totally get it." Jennie smiled at her. Suddenly, she looked down at Lua's hands. "Your nails are pretty! Can I see your manicure?"
Lua smiled and blushed, recognizing what Jennie was doing: Under the pretense of examining Lua's manicure, she could hold Lua's hand in public, at least for a little bit. She reached out and relished the feeling of Jennie's fingers wrapping around hers.
"Do you paint your nails yourself?" Jennie asked.
Lua laughed. "I wish," she said. "Our stylist has an assistant who paints my nails for me. If I tried doing it myself, I'd end up with nail polish all over my fingers!"
Jennie laughed. "I'm sure it's not as bad as well that!"
Just then the waitress rolled over a cart with their food. There was a hot pot of boiling water and a tray with paper-thin slices of beef and an assortment of vegetables and mushrooms. She placed the food on the table, then bowed and left them.
Just then, Lua noticed a photographer leaning out of a booth on the other side of the restaurant. She made a show of bowing to Jennie, saying "Thank you for taking me to eat beef! You're being exceptionally kind to your junior." She winked as she sat back up.
Jennie recognized what Lua was doing and smiled at her. "It's a pleasure to be able to do something so nice for my junior," she said brightly. "Now, please eat!"
The next few minute passed in silence as they picked up pieces of beef with their chopsticks and dipped them into the boiling water. The beef was sliced so thinly that it cooked almost as soon as it touched the water. By the time they had finished the beef, the water had been turned into a delicious-looking beef broth.
Lua reached out to pick up some mizuna to dip in the broth, but Jennie said "Wait. Let's put the mushrooms and carrots in first - they'll need some time to cook. By the time we finish the other veggies, they should be ready."
Lua nodded, and together she and Jennie picked up the mushrooms and carrots and put them into the broth. Then they started eating the tofu and greens while waiting for the vegetables to cook.
Soon - certainly much sooner than Lua would have liked, they had eaten all the vegetables, poured the broth into their rice bowls, and eaten their rice. They left the restaurant and walked to the mall, heading for the exit, where they would get separate cabs back to their apartments. Jennie reached out and took Lua's hand as they walked. Lua hoped it looked like nothing more than "senior being protective and caring for junior" and nothing that would give the gossip sites any ideas.
"Do you think," Lua quietly asked Jennie, "we'll ever be able to have, like, a normal relationship?"
Jennie was quiet for a long moment, causing Lua to worry. When she finally did speak, however, she put all of Lua's fears at rest. "I think so. I really do." She paused for a second. "I don't know when, or where, or how. But I believe there's more in store for us than just stolen moments. There just has to be."
Lua looked at Jennie and smiled. "I hope you're right," she said.
By this time they had reached the exit. They walked out and over to the cab stand. Conscious that there were probably photographers watching them, Lua made certain to bow to Jennie. "Thank you for helping me choose a new outfit, Jennie-unnie!"
Jennie answered Lua's bow with a nod and a wink. "I'm always happy to help. Please call me if you ever have any questions."
They smiled at each other, then turned and walked to the first two cabs in the line. The driver offered to help Lua get her shopping bags into the car, but she assured him that she could handle it. Once she was in the cab and gave the driver her address, he pulled away from the curb. Lua looked out the window, watching Jennie's cab until it turned to go to a different part of town. "Someday," she promised herself, "we'll be able to share a cab, because we'll be going home to the same place."
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
"Thank you for driving us around today," IU said as Suyeon merged onto the freeway.
"Absolutely not a problem," Suyeon said. "I never get enough time to practice my driving." She checked her blind spot and changed lanes. "Why aren't you driving, though? Is your car in the shop or something?"
IU laughed. "No, nothing like that. I just haven't learned how to drive yet."
Suyeon was surprised to hear this. "With everything else you can do, you haven't learned how to drive?"
"It's because I can do all the other things that I never learned to drive," IU explained. "There's only so much time in a day, and it seems like there's always something more urgent than learning to drive."
Suyeon exited the freeway and started looking around for the Crimson Dragon. "Is it bad that I can drive, then? Is it a sign I'm neglecting more important things?"
"Not at all," IU said reassuringly. "Truth be told, I'm kind of jealous of you. There's a kind of freedom that comes with being able to drive that you can't have with cabs and buses and trains. I'm actually kind of jealous of you."
Suyeon laughed. "I wish there was someone else in the car with us - no one will ever believe me if I say that IU said she was jealous of me!"
They both had a good laugh at this. "Oh, here it is - on the right," IU said, pointing out the Crimson Dragon to Suyeon. Suyeon pulled into the valet parking area, handed over her car to the valet, and she and IU made their way into the club. There was a smattering of flashes from paparazzi as they walked up to the door, but not as many as Suyeon had feared. Once they were inside, the hostess recognized them and bowed.
"If you'll come with me, I'll take you to your party," she said, leading them deeper into the club. "We were told to expect you," she added. "Your friends only got here a few minutes before you." By this time they had reached the door of Sei and Lucy's room; the hostess opened the door to let them in, then closed it behind them.
Sei and Lucy jumped up as soon as they saw IU and Suyeon and bowed to them. "Hello unnies," Lucy said with a smile. "We're so happy you could join us."
IU returned their bow, and out of the corner of her eye she saw Suyeon doing the same. "Thank you for inviting us," IU said. She noticed that the others seemed to waiting for her, so she sat down at the table, then as the others sat down, she said "And now we're going to speak informally for the rest of the night. You don't have to act like your manager is looking over your shoulder."
At this point the door opened and the waiter came in, bringing the appetizers that Sei and Lucy had ordered, as well as two pitchers of beer and two bottles of soju. "Will there be anything else?" he said.
"Not right now," Lucy said. "Maybe check back in a while, see if we're ready to order our courses?"
"Of course, ma'am," the waiter said with a slight bow. "Enjoy your starters. If you need me for anything, the button on the table by your right hand will summon me." And with that, he bowed and left the room.
"So," IU said, looking at Suyeon, "I'll need to find a special boyfriend from Sei in about 2-1/2 years and for Lucy in about 3?"
"That sounds about-" Suyeon began, but then she noticed the panicked look on Lucy's face and stopped. "What is it Lucy?"
"Ummmm..." Lucy hesitated. She looked at Sei and then back at Suyeon. "Did you tell her about?" She pointed to Sei with her eyes.
IU laughed. "Yes, Lucy," she said, "Suyeon told me about you and Sei. I think you two make a great couple, by the way. She told me that other than her and Elly, all the members of Weki Meki would need special boyfriends, to help them stay in the closet by pretending to date."
"Is that really necessary?" Sei asked. "Couldn't we just. . . not date?"
IU shook her head. "Not for very long. If you're never seen dating a guy but the paparazzi always see you out with Lucy, it won't take long for people to put two and two together."
"That makes sense," Lucy said with a nod. "So-" She stopped suddenly when she noticed Sei was looking around the table, apparently searching for something and not finding it. "What is it, Sei?" she asked.
"I was looking for the radish kimchi," Sei said. "I think the waiter might have forgotten it."
Lucy looked around the table. "You're right," she said. "I'll call him." She reached for the button to call the waiter, only to have Sei grab her wrist and stop her.
"No, you don't have to do that," Sei said. "I'll just eat something else."
"Sei," Lucy said, prying Sei's fingers off her arm, "do you remember what we talked about in the car on the way here?" Having finally freed her arm, she pressed the button. Much more quickly than seemed reasonable, the waiter had re-entered the room.
"What can I do for you, ma'am?" he asked as he bowed.
"We're supposed to have some radish kimchi," Lucy said, gesturing toward the table. "The kitchen must have forgotten it."
"I'll look into it right away, ma'am," the waiter said, and with another bow he backed out of the room, shutting the door behind him.
"See?" Lucy asked, looking at Sei. "He wasn't upset; we weren't bothering him. Restaurant staff want guests to be happy, so they'll speak well of the restaurant and come back and bring friends."
"It just seems-" Sei began, only to be interrupted by the reappearance of the waiter.
"Here is your radish kimchi," he said, bowing as he put the bowl on the table, and here's a complementary bowl of pa-kimchi to make up for your trouble. Will there be anything else? Are you ready to order your entrees yet?"
"Not quite yet, I don't think," IU said. "How about it we call you when we're ready, so you don't have to keep checking on us?"
The waiter sketched a bow in IU's direction. "If that pleases you, ma'am. Always feel free to call me if you need anything." And just as quickly as he had come, he was gone again.
Suyeon looked at Lucy. "What was the deal with the button there? Why didn't Sei want you to push the button?"
Lucy glanced at Sei, who nodded, then turned back to Suyeon. "Sei's still not entirely comfortable at fancy restaurants like this. She doesn't want to be a bother to the staff."
"I can relate to that," IU said. Looking at Sei, she went on. "I was very poor when I was young, so when I became an idol and had to eat at fancy restaurants, I was very nervous. What if I did the wrong thing? What if I offended somebody? What if I look ridiculous? Plus, I knew how hard restaurant staff work, and I didn't want to make their work any more difficult."
"What did you do?" Sei asked.
"One day I went out to eat with some other idols and I ended up eating a meal I didn't like because the waiter brought me the wrong meal and I'd rather just eat it than call him back and request to be brought the meal I had actually ordered." IU said, between bites of kimchi and rice. "When I told my manager about it later, he basically told me the same things Lucy just told you. Restaurant staff, especially at a high end restaurant like this, take great pride in their work. They want you to enjoy your meal, and if they make a mistake, they want a chance to try to make it right."
"Well, I'm glad the waiter forgot the radish kimchi," Suyeon said around a bite of rice and kimchi.
"Why?" Sei asked, looking confused.
"First of all," Suyeon said, "you got to see that you're not bothering people by asking for what you want. But more importantly, because if he hadn't forgotten the radish kimchi, he wouldn't have brought this pa-kimchi. It's the best I've ever had - except for my grandmother's!"
They all laughed at this, and started to eat in earnest.
Lua walked into Weki Meki's apartment to find Doyeon sitting in the common room with the lights dimmed, watching a historical drama with the volume turned almost all the way down.
"Hey unnie!" Lua said. "Why are you sitting in the dark? Where is everybody?"
Doyeon shushed Lua, then quietly said. "Yoojung's having one of her pain flares tonight. She finally got to sleep but I wasn't sleepy yet, so I came out here so I wouldn't disturb her."
"Sorry," Lua whispered, coming to sit next to Doyeon so that Doyeon didn't have to talk so loud. "And the others?"
Doyeon started counting people off on her fingers. "Elly's out with K.Will, of course. Suyeon's out shopping with IU for a new outfit for her next date with Eric Nam."
"Yeah, I saw them when Jennie and I were shopping," Lua said, showing her shopping bag.
"Rina's out somewhere," Doyeon went on. "I have no idea where. And Sei and Lucy are at Crimson Dragon."
Lua's eyes got huge. "How did Sei and Lucy get a reservation to Crimson Dragon? Jennie tried to get a reservation to take me there, and we won't be able to go for six weeks."
"On the day they opened, I called and made a reservation for tonight," Doyeon said, "but when tonight finally rolled around, Yoojung was having flare and didn't feel up to going, Crimson Dragon wouldn't change the reservation, so I gave it to Lucy and Sei so it wouldn't go to waste."
"That was nice of you," Lua said, trying not to be jealous.
"I'm sure Lucy thought it was nice," Doyeon said. "I don't know if Sei will ever forgive me." On seeing Lua's quizzical look, she went on. "You know how Sei feels about formal dress and fancy events. It took everything I had to make sure she wore heels tonight."
Lua nodded. "Yeah, Sei'd be happy eating at the farmer's market every night if we let her."
"I like the farmer's market as much as the next girl," Doyeon said, "but Sei's going to have to get used to being fancy. The more successful we are, the fancier we'll be expected to be."
"Do you think we should talk to Suyeon about it?" Lua asked.
"Oh no," Doyeon said, rapidly shaking her head. "Suyeon would take things too far. Poor Sei would end up wearing heels 24/7. Just let it go and it'll work itself out."
"If you say so," Lua said, looking skeptical.
"Anyway, enough about Sei," Doyeon said. "Show me your new dress!"
"There's really nothing to see," Lua said. "It's just a blue dress."
Doyeon arched an eyebrow at Lua. "Jennie helped you pick it out and it's 'just a dress'? I don't believe it. I want to see you in it."
Lua shrugged. "Okay, I guess." She headed off to her room to change into her new dress.
While Lua was changing clothes, Yoojung came out of the bedroom. "Why's it so dark in here?" she asked. "And why are you watching the TV with practically no sound? What are you even doing?"
"I turned the lights off so they wouldn't hurt your eyes if you woke up," Doyeon said, "and I had the volume on the TV turned down so I didn't wake you up. Right now I'm waiting for Lua to finish changing clothes so she can show me her new dress."
"Lua got a new dress?" Yoojung asked as she moved to sit on the couch next to Doyeon.
"Jennie picked it out for her," Doyeon said. Then she leaned closer to Yoojung and whispered in her ear. "Lua seems kind of uncertain about her new dress, so unless it's horrible, be extra supportive."
Yoojung nodded and laid her head on Doyeon's shoulder, enjoying just sitting on the couch with her.
"Okay, here I come!" Lua whispered as she walked back into the living room. Doyeon couldn't remember ever seeing Lua in a dress that suited her better. The dress's shape accentuated her curves, while the blue color made her skin practically glow.
"Wow!" Yoojung said, her jaw dropping. "I want Jennie to pick out a dress for me!"
"You really think it's okay?" Lua asked, twisting her hands nervously.
"Okay?" Doyeon said. "You look amazing! If you keep dressing like this, people are going to say things like 'Doyeon used to be the visual of Weki Meki, but Lua just snatched that away from her."
Lua laughed. "Now I know you're just kidding me."
"No, seriously," Doyeon said. "You look great! You just-"
She was interrupted by a knock at the door.
"That's my delivery," Yoojung said, as she headed for the door. When she came back, she was carrying a brown paper bag in one hand and a six-pack of beer in the other. "I didn't have dinner," she said, as she put the things down on the table and started emptying the bag, "and I guessed you probably didn't either, so I ordered enough for you too." She looked at Lua. "And I didn't know who else would be here, so I ordered extra. You hungry?"
Lua shook her head. "I just had shabu-shabu with Jennie. I wouldn't say no to a beer, though."
"Well, go change out of that dress so you don't spill anything on it and come help yourself," Yoojung said, popping the top on a bottle of beer and then picking up a chicken wing.
Jihyo and Nayeon were laughing. They had just made Jeongyeon retell the story of her first date with Rina, so that Rina could fill in any details that Jeongyeon forgot. As it turned out, there weren't any - Rina was amazed at Jeongyeon's recall of that day.
"So that's why you call her Lina, even though we all know good and well you're capable of saying 'Rina' properly!" Jihyo exclaimed.
"I can say it," Jeongyeon said. "But apparently Momo hasn't gotten the hang of it yet."
"Hasn't gotten the hang of what?" Momo asked from the next seat forward, turning around to join their conversation.
"Say 'Rina,'" Jeongyeon commanded.
Momo mouthed it silently to herself a couple of times before saying "Lina!"
"You see?" Jeongyeon gestured toward Momo. "That's why I had trouble finding Rina that day in the coffee shop."
"But you did find her," Momo pointed out. "So I couldn't have done all that bad."
"I think the beret is what did it," Rina said. "That was a good idea."
"I wish I could take credit for that," Momo said. "That was all Yoojung's idea. Up until then, I had no idea how difficult setting up a blind date could be - and this one was only half-blind!"
"Half-blind?" Nayeon asked, looking quizzically at Momo.
Momo nodded. "Half-blind. Rina knew she was looking for Jeongyeon, but Jeongyeon didn't know who she was looking for. For it to be totally blind, neither one of them would know who they were looking for."
"Then how would they find each other?" Jeongyeon asked. "Are you trying to turn your friends' love life into a spy story?"
Momo shrugged. "I might as well, since I don't have a love life at the moment," she said.
"I thought Momo was dating Heechul," Rina quietly said to Jeongyeon, who only shook her head and made shushing motions.
"No, it's okay," Momo said. "I don't mind talking about it." She paused for a deep breath. "I had to dump Heechul because he was too devoted to his video games and not devoted enough to spending time with me."
"Oh," Rina said, surprised. "You two always seemed so happy together."
"We were," Momo said, "when there wasn't a screen in front of his face, and especially when there was someone with a camera around."
"I still think you ought to let me set you up on a blind date," Nayeon said.
Momo shook her head. "Right now I'm thinking Jeongyeon's got the right idea and I should just swear off guys altogether." She laughed. "No, not really - I like the D too much." She laughed again. "I'm sure eventually I'll meet the right guy, and until then, I've got a friend back at the door with rechargeable batteries who's better in bed than Heechul ever was!"
Nayeon gasped. "You did not!"
Momo nodded. "I did. Heechul's a nice guy - sometimes - but he's boring in bed. Totally vanilla, no stamina, and worst of all, he doesn't eat at the Y!"
"Sounds like you're better off without him then," Jihyo said.
Jeongyeon looked over and noticed that Rina was blushing furiously. "Is something wrong?" she asked.
Rina shook her head. "I'm just not used to this. My members in Weki Meki aren't so forward about sex like this."
"If you're going to hang out with Twice, you're going to have to get used to it," Nayeon said. "These bitches can't keep their legs or their mouths closed!"
"Oh, you're one to talk!" Jihyo said. She turned to Rina. "If Nayeon has good sex on Friday night, we all hear about it on Saturday morning - then over and over for the rest of the week!"
Nayeon gasped. "I'm not that bad! Anything, I'd think you'd be happy for me!"
"I am," Jihyo said, "I just don't want to have to be happy over and over again all week."
Jeongyeon leaned over toward Rina so they could talk while Jihyo and Nayeon continued their good-natured teasing. "Now that you've seen what Twice is like when the fans and managers aren't around, how horrified are you?"
Rina laughed. "I think it's wonderful! Sometimes seeing you all on stage, you seem so perfect, it's like you're not even human! You're like a bunch of goddesses or something. It's so reassuring to be around you and see you being just regular people."
"I'm glad to hear you say that," Jeongyeon said. "Normal people worry about taking their girlfriend to meet their family. I had to worry about this." She gestured at the other members of Twice.
Rina hugged Jeongyeon. "You've got nothing to worry about. There's nothing they could do to make me like you any less."
"I'm glad to hear that," Jeongyeon said. "I-"
"Hey Jeongyeon!" Momo shouted to get her attention. "Are going to need me to sleep on the couch tonight?"
Jeongyeon looked at Rina and mouthed "Curfew?"
Rina nodded and held up two fingers.
"No," Jeongyeon said. "I'll just need you to be elsewhere until about 1:30 - I've got to arrange to get Rina back before her curfew."
Nayeon gasped. "Curfew! You're just a baby! Jeongyeon's robbing the cradle!"
"Hush!" Jihyo said. "Different companies have different rules - and I think you would have gotten into a lot less trouble if we'd had a stricter curfew."
"Besides," Jeongyeon said, "I already got Rina in trouble by keeping her out after curfew once. I promised Suyeon I'd be more responsible from then one.
Jeongyeon wrapped her arm around Rina and rested her head against Rina's. "Don't let them bother you," she said. "If they didn't like you, they wouldn't tease you."
Rina cuddled closer to Jeongyeon. "I'm not bothered about anything. This night is turning out to be much better than I'd expected it to be when I thought I was just going to sit around my dorm and watch you on TV."
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Lua and Doyeon were sitting in the common room, sharing the last beer, when Rina came in.
Rina looked at them. "Hey! Where is Suyeon?" she asked. "I want to be sure she sees that I got home before curfew."
Doyeon shrugged. "Suyeon's not here," she said. She took a swig of the beer, then handed the bottle to Lua, who finished it off, then put it down on the coffee table.
Rina looked annoyed. "Not here? But curfew's in two minutes! You'll tell her I was on time, won't you? Eventually she's got to be convinced I can get in before curfew and she'll stop reminding me."
"I wouldn't bet on it," Lua said. "She still reminds me to use a coaster every time I pick up a bottle."
"That's because you still don't use a coaster," Doyeon said, staring pointedly at the bottle sitting on the table.
Lua looked at the bottle. "Fine," she said. "So I forget sometimes. It's not like it's a big deal, anyway." She leaned forward and moved the bottle onto a coaster.
"It's not a big deal now," Doyeon said. "But what if someday we get invited-" Doyeon was interrupted by her phone ringing. She answered the phone. "Hello? . . . What's up?" She listened, her face progressively falling as whoever she was talking to went on. "Are they okay?" She listened some more. "Okay. I'll keep things under control here." More listening. "Okay. And when she gets back, tell Suyeon that Rina made it in before curfew." She laughed. "No, I don't think Suyeon will care either, but I promised Rina I'd tell her. . . Okay. Keep us in the loop."
"What's going on?" Rina asked. "When Suyeon gets back from where?"
"Suyein, Sei, and Lucy were in an accident," Doyeon said. "They were on their way back from dropping IU off at her apartment when a drunk driver swerved across the center line and clipped the front of their car. They spun out of control and the car slammed sideways into a building. An ambulance took them to the hospital. Sei's having her arm put in a cast right now. Suyeon's in getting an x-ray of her head. And Lucy's apparently fine, just shaken up. Manager-nim is with them, and so are K.Will and Elly - Manager-nim called Elly to come to the hospital and help out, and K.Will drove her there and then stayed to help. Elly said he's been a huge help - Lucy was really freaked out by the whole thing, and he was able to calm her down."
"Is there anything we can do to help?" Lua asked.
Doyeon shook her head. "If anyone from the news calls - they're not supposed to have our numbers, but you never know - we're to tell them that we don't know anything and our manager will be making a statement in the morning."
Rina sat down on the couch next to Doyeon, her face ashen. "This is so scary," she said. "Any of them could have been seriously injured, or even. . ." Her voice trailed off.
"But they weren't," Doyeon said, reaching over to give Rina a hug. "They're going to be fine. We're all going to be fine. Tell you what: Why don't you get to bed. I'll wake you up if there's any news before morning." She turned to look at Lua. "You too. There's no point in all of us being sleep deprived tomorrow."
"What about you?" Rina asked.
Doyeon shook her head. "I can't sleep," she said. "Besides, I feel like someone ought to be awake in case we're needed."
"What about Yoojung?" Lua asked. "Should we wake her up and tell her?"
"No," Doyeon said. "She had a hard time getting to sleep tonight, so we should just let her sleep. She'll find out soon enough. Now get to bed, you two."
As Lua and Rina went to get ready for bed, Doyeon turned on the TV, muted it, and turned it to the news channel. If there was any reporting about the accident, she wanted to be sure to see it.
Lua rolled over and grabbed her phone. 4 a.m., and she just couldn't sleep anymore. She figured she'd go keep Doyeon company on the couch. When she got to the living room, she saw that Doyeon had fallen asleep on the couch. She grabbed a blanket, shifted Doyeon so she was lying down, and covered her up. Then she sat down in one of the chairs to wait. The TV was still playing the news channel on mute, but Lua was pretty sure that the wreck wouldn't have made the news.
"One of the music news or gossip sites might have something," she thought. She ran a quick search on her phone and found nothing - apparently three members of Weki Meki getting in an auto wreck had managed to fly completely under the radar. She didn't know if she should be relieved or insulted. She had pretty much decided on relieved when she was startled out of her thoughts by the door opening. She looked up to see Sei coming in, her left arm from wrist to shoulder wrapped in a blue plaster cast, followed by Lucy, Suyeon, and Elly. She jumped up and ran over and started hugging them all.
"I'm so glad to see you all!" she exclaimed. "How are you? Are you okay?"
"Except for this," Sei said, gesturing with her cast.
"I'm pretty much okay," Lucy said. "Just some bruises."
"A bunch of really bad bruises," Suyeon said.
"And how are you?" Lua asked Suyeon. "I noticed you didn't say anything about yourself."
"I'm fi-" Suyeon started to say, only to have Elly interrupt her to say "Suyeon's got a skull fracture."
Lua just stared, speechless for a moment, then asked "A skull fracture? What are they going to do? Why isn't your head in a cast? Are you going to have to have surgery? Are you going to be okay?"
"I'm going to be fine," Suyeon said. "The crack is only about this long-" she held her thumb and forefinger about half an inch apart- "and the bone didn't shift. I've got to take it easy for a couple of days, and then I can get back to regular activities."
"Provided she doesn't have any serious headaches-" Lucy interjected, only to interrupt herself with a yawn.
"That's it," Lua said. "We've got to get you all to bed. Sei, you're sleeping in my bed - you don't need to be trying to climb the ladder with your arm in a cast."
"No, you don't have to do that," Sei protested.
"Sei," Lua said, doing her best impression of Doyeon's stern voice. "You're sleeping in my bed. This is not up for debate!"
Sei saluted with her unbroken arm. "Yes ma'am!"
Lucy and Elly bustled around getting the injured members to bed, then got to bed themselves. Lua remembered as she drifted off to sleep that she needed to set an alarm to wake up the next morning.
Yoojung was awakened by the sun shining in the window of the small room. She looked around and saw that Doyeon's bed was empty but Suyeon was still asleep. Listening, she didn't hear anyone moving around in the rest of the apartment. Moving quietly so as not to wake Suyeon, get slipped out of bed and went to look for Doyeon. She found her asleep on the couch - she apparently fell asleep while watching the news, because the TV was still on but muted. Yoojung found the remote and turned off the TV, then went to the kitchen to get some breakfast. On the way, she spotted the kitchen clock and noticed the time - they were an hour late for the day's first practice, and Yoojung was the ony one awake. Rushing back into the living room, she shook Doyeon awake.
"Doyeon, wake up! Wake up!" she shouted. "We've late! Manager-nim's probably gonna be here any second!"
Doyeon covered her ears and winced at all the noise Yoojung as making. "Manager-nim's not coming," she said. "Practice has been cancelled."
"What?" Yoojung exclaimed. "Why would practice be cancelled? Manager-nim has never cancelled practice!"
"Because Suyeon, Sei, and Lucy were in a wreck last night," Doyeon said sleepily, trying to roll over and get away from Yoojung.
Yoojung only shook her harder. "Doyeon, you're dreaming! Suyeon, Sei, and Lucy weren't in a wreck! You've got to get up and help me get the others up so we can get to practice!"
Yoojung was brought up short by the sound of Sei's voice coming from the entry to the common room. "No, Doyeon's right," she said quietly. "We were in a wreck."
Yoojung looked up at Sei and saw that she had her left arm in a blue cast, help up with a sling. "What happened?"
"We were coming back from Crimson Dragon," said said as she slid down into a chair, apparently still tired. "We dropped IU off at her apartment and were on our way back here when a drunk driver crossed over into our lane and hit Suyeon's car. I broke my arm, Suyeon has a skull fracture, and Lucy got away with just a bunch of bruises."
"A bunch of really bad bruises," Lucy said, coming into the common room and leaning on the chair Sei was sitting in. Even from across the room, Yoojung could see that Lucy's arms and legs were mottled purple and blue and that she had a bruise on the side of her face.
"But you're all okay now?" Yoojung asked.
"I really hurt," Lucy said. "I'm going to go wake Elly up and find out what she did with our pain meds."
"Lucy and I are okay, if you call this okay," Sei said with a rueful laugh. "I haven't seen Suyeon this morning."
"She was asleep when I got up a few minutes ago," Yoojung said.
"You should probably go wake her up," Sei said. "We're supposed to be waking her up every four hours, and I don't know if Elly woke her up when she was supposed to."
"Elly did," said a voice coming from behind Sei. The voice was soon followed by its owner. Elly handed Sei a glass of water, then handed another glass to Lucy, who had followed her into the room. She then fished a medicine bottle out of the pocket of her robe and handed them each a pill, which they took eagerly. "It'll be time to wake Suyeon up in three more hours. Until then, let her sleep." Just then Elly's phone rang. She pulled it out and looked at it. "Manager-nim," she said, as she stepped into the kitchen to take the call.
Several minutes later, she came back into the common room, her face serious.
"I don't think I like that face," Yoojung said. "What's wrong?"
"Well," Elly said, "on the bright side, Suyeon's car will be replaced, all of their medical bills will be paid, and Suyeon, Sei, and Lucy will each be getting a fairly sizeable check."
Lucy looked confused. "That sounds like good news. Doesn't it normally take weeks to go through the insurance process and get all that taken care of?"
"That's just it," Ella said. "You're not going through the insurance process. The drunk driver who hit you? Was chaebol. So her family will take care of all the bills, plus pay you each some hush money, and in return there will be no publicity about the wreck."
"Okay," Sei said hesitantly. "I mean, it's not fair that chaebol can get away with things like that because they've got enough money to pay to make their problems go away, but I'm still not seeing the big problem here. Out with it, Elly: What's got you so upset about this?"
"'No publicity about the wreck' means you, Lucy, and Suyeon can't be out in public until you're full healed," Elly said, looking significantly at Sei's cast.
Sei followed Elly's eyes, looked down at her cast, and said "But the doctor said I've got to be in the cast for six weeks! And we've got a comeback in a week!"
Elly nodded slowly. "Manager-nim has already released a statement that you will be on hiatus and will not be involved in promoting our next comeback."
"But-" Sei protested, tears welling up in her eyes, "I've worked so hard on this comeback! I'm so proud of this song and I'm so excited to show it off to the Ki-Lings!"
"I know," Elly said, "and I wish it could be different. But unfortunately this is the world we live in."
"Well it sucks!" Sei yelled, jumping up out of the chair. "It sucks and I hate it!" She can off to the big bedroom, almost clobbering Lucy with her cast as she ran by.
They heard the door slam. "I'd better go check on her," Lucy said, "see if I can calm her down."
Elly nodded, then sat down on the couch next to Yoojung.
"Isn't there anything we can do about this?" Yoojung asked. "Can't we fight it, be sure the driver gets punished for what they did?"
Elly shook her head. "There's no way to fight this," she said. "Picture the largest amount of money you can, and that's just pocket change to a chaebol. If we try fighting this, they'll just buy Fantagio and keep us in the dungeon until we agree to go along."
Yoojung blinked several times, trying to imagine the size of the forces arrayed against them. "Sei's right," she said. "This does suck."
"What sucks?"
Elly and Yoojung looked up to see Suyeon coming out of the small bedroom. Elly jumped up and assisted Suyeon into a chair, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Suyeon neither seemed to need assistance nor to want to be in the chair. "How are you feeling today?" Elly asked.
"Surprisingly good, considering I've got a fractured skull," Suyeon said. "But you didn't answer my question: What sucks?"
So Elly explained the situation to Suyeon, noticing that Suyeon's face got fiercer the more she said.
"But we can fight this!" Suyeon said. "It doesn't matter how much money they've got - truth is on our side. The dashcam will show everything that happened. Call Manager-nim back. Tell her we don't want the money, we want to fight."
"The dashcam probably would have showed the whole thing," Elly agreed. "But who do you think owns the towing company that towed away your car. And who do you think owns the junkyard where your car - including the dashcam - have probably already been crushed."
Just then there was a knock at the door. Yoojung jumped up and opened the door, revealing a messenger in an official-looking uniform, carrying a white cardboard box. "Official package for Miss Ji Suyeon," he said.
"I'll take it for her," Yoojung said, reaching out for the package.
The messenger shook his head as he stepped back to keep the package out of Yoojung's reach. "I have to hand the package to Miss Ji Suyeon, and only Miss Ji Suyeon, and she has to sign that she has received it."
By this time Suyeon had made it to the door. "I'm Ji Suyeon," she said.
The driver looked at her. "I'll need to see some ID, ma'am," he said.
It was a matter of several minutes for Suyeon to retrieve her ID, show it to the messenger, allow him to take a picture of it, sign his clipboard, receive a copy of the paper she'd signed, and finally receive the package. Once the messenger was gone, Suyeon sat down on the couch with the box in her lap and opened it. "It's the contents of my car," she said, her voice flat. Then she noticed a red plastic envelope at the side of the box. "But I don't recognize this," she said, picking up the envelope and opening it. Inside was a car key and a stack of papers. Suyeon read the top page. "I hope this package finds you well. Your replacement vehicle will be delivered to your parking place by this afternoon." She flipped through the remainder of the papers. "It's a car just like mine, except brand new." Suyeon paused for a moment. "But it took a month to get my car after I ordered it. How could they get one in just a day."
"That's what you can do when you can throw nearly infinite amounts of money at a problem." Elly said.
Suyeon looked down at the package, the scale of what had happened just making itself clear to her. "We really can't fight this, can we?" she asked piteously.
Elly sat down next to Suyeon and wrapped her arms around her. "No, we can't. And I know it sucks, but that's just how it is."
"But it's especially bad for Sei," Suyeon said. "What's going to happen to her, missing this comeback?"
"Manager-nim assured me that she could rejoin the group once she was out of the cast," Elly said. "It'll be like when Jeongyeon was on hiatus from Twice - when she came back, Once still loved her just as much as they ever had."
"Do you think Sei could do V-Lives while she's on hiatus?" Yoojung asked.
"Probably not," Suyeon said. "We can ask Manager-nim, but I'm almost sure she'll say no. She can probably still answer fan mail, though. At least that'll be something."
"At least I didn't break my right arm," Sei said.
They all whipped around too see Sei standing behind the couch, looking over Suyeon's shoulder. Suyeon craned her neck to look up at Sei.
"You feeling any better?" she asked.
Sei nodded. The whole situation is still bullshit," she said, "but I can live with it."
Lucy came up from behind her and gave her a hug.
"I'm really sorry about this," Suyeon said.
"It wasn't your fault," Sei said, putting her hand on Suyeon's shoulder. "It's just one of those things."
Suyeon thought she had never heard Sei sound so sad.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Suyeon woke up, looked at her phone, and saw that it was 4:30 in the morning. She tried to get back to sleep, but sleep wouldn't come. Finally she sighed, turned off her alarm, and quietly slipped out of the small bedroom. She expected to be the first one up, but see saw a light on in the kitchen and heard someone moving around. She walked into the kitchen and found Sei eating a tangerine while waiting for the kettle to come to a boil.
"What are you doing up so early?" Suyeon asked. "I know you're normally the first one up, but this is ridiculous!"
Sei shrugged as she finished chewing the piece of tangerine in her mouth, then said "I just couldn't sleep - today's the start of training for our next comeback and I can't wait to get started!" Just then the kettle whistled and Sei jumped up to go fix her tea. "Want me to make you a cup of tea?" she asked as she poured hot water over the tea bag waiting in her mug.
"Sure!" Suyeon replied. "Do we have any English breakfast tea?"
Sei looked in the cabinet, found the box of English breakfast tea and took it out, only to discover it was empty. "Apparently not," she said, turning the empty box upside down and shaking it. "Apparently someone-" she looked meaningfully at Suyeon- "used the last of it and then put the empty box back in the cabinet."
"Guilty." Suyeon squeaked quietly. "I'll just have whatever you're having, then."
"Tea, Earl Grey, hot," Sei said, doing her best impression of Captain Picard, which Suyeon had to admit was actually not very good at all. Over the last six months, while Sei stayed in seclusion until her arm came out of the cast, then waited for their next comeback to come around, Sei had watched all of Star Trek. Some of the others had tried to watch it with her, but none of them liked it nearly as much as she did. Still, it took her mind off the accident, the coverup, and the comeback she had to miss, so none of them begrudged her hogging the television to watch it, even if Lua did kind of resent the fact that she now knew the difference between a phaser and a photon torpedo.
"So," Sei said as she put a mug in front of Suyeon, "what do we know about the song for the new comeback?"
Suyeon shrugged. "Not much. Manager-nim gave me two song titles, but I know nothing about what the songs sound like, or if those are the only songs, or which one's going to be the A-side or anything."
She paused to take a sip of her tea, prompting Sei to impatiently ask "Well, what are their names?"
Suyeon put her mug down and said "One of them's called 'Lose My Number,' and the other is 'He Knows I'm Trouble.'"
"Those both sound good," Sei said as she cleaned up the peel from her tangerine. "They both sound very girl crush, so this could be our first win. I like the sound of 'He Knows I'm Trouble' best."
Suyeon laughed. "It's hard to know without actually healing the songs. Still, it's good to hear you getting excited about something."
Sei spun around and danced across the kitchen from the trashcan back to her cup of tea. "I just feel like today I finally get to put the accident behind me. You and Lucy got to get back to work fairly quickly, but I haven't been out of the apartment in months." Her face fell. "I wonder if the Ki-lings even remember me. . ."
"Oh, believe me, they do," Suyeon said. "Rina and I were doing a V-Live the other night and they kept asking about you."
Sei pouted. "I wish Manager-nim had let me at least start doing V-Lives once I got the cast off."
"I know," Suyeon said, reaching over to pat her on the shoulder, "but Manager-nim decided it was best for you to stay 'on hiatus' until our next comeback, so that it was further removed from the accident."
"I know why," Sei said, "but I still don't like it." She paused for a second, then started to smile. "But at least the Ki-Lings were asking about me. That's a good thing!" She drank the last of her tea and put the mug in the dishwasher, then skipped off toward the bathroom. "See you later! I'm going to go get a shower!"
Suyeon shook her head as she watched Sei skip off. The forced hiatus had been really hard on her, and her moods had been swinging back and forth so quickly as a result, so it was good to see her happy."
Suyeon was suddenly startled by the sound of the apartment door opening. She spun around and saw Elly trying to quietly sneak into the apartment.
"What are you doing out so early?" Suyeon asked. "Did you forget we start training for our comeback today?"
Elly shook her head as she took off her shoes and put them on the shoe rack. "No, I didn't forget," she said. "But K.Will's going to be in America for the next three weeks, and I had a chance to meet him at the airport for an early breakfast and then to see him off - his flight left super early." She checked the time on her phone. "And I've got time for a short nap before we have to go to practice, so I'll be fine. Plenty of sleep."
"Okay," Suyeon said dubiously. "You know what you're doing I suppose."
Elly smiled at Suyeon. "You know, you're getting better as a leader." When Suyeon looked at her quizzically, she elaborated. "Once upon a time you would have tried micromanaging things, but you're learning that we can handle ourselves, with maybe a little nudge in the right direction sometimes." She favored Suyeon with another smile, then headed for the small bedroom and her nap.
Weki Meki arrived back at their apartment, exhausted after a long day of practice.
"Dibs on the showers!" Sei called out, as she danced past the others, who were busy collapsing on the furniture.
"How is she even still moving?" Yoojung asked. "She danced twice as hard as the rest of us put together, and she's still got energy. It's not fair!"
"She's just burning through all the energy she built up from having to miss the last comeback," Doyeon said, lazily stroking Yoojung's hair.
"We've got to work extra-hard this time and try to get our first win," Suyeon said.
Elly rolled her eyes as looked over at Suyeon. "Like we don't do that every time?"
"Yeah, I know we do," Suyeon agreed, "but I just think it would be even more special this time. It would mean so much to Sei."
Lucy reached over and patted Suyeon on the shoulder. "Suyeon," she said, "I don't know how many times I've said this already, but apparently I need to say it again: It wasn't your fault we were in the accident. It wasn't your fault Sei missed the last comeback. So quit beating yourself up over it, okay?"
Suyeon nodded. "I know in my head that it wasn't my fault," she said, "but my heart doesn't always feel that way."
Lucy turned and gave Suyeon a hug. Suyeon laid her head on Lucy's shoulder and promptly started crying. She was still crying when Sei came in a few minutes later, her shower finished.
"Why's Suyeon crying?" Sei asked.
"The usual," Lua said.
Sei rushed over and sat on the other side of Suyeon from Lucy and joined in hugging their leader. "Suyeon," she said fiercely, "listen to me: The accident wasn't your fault. Nothing you did caused it, and there was nothing you could have done to stop it. We're all okay now, so please quit beating yourself up over this!"
Suyeon let go of Lucy, turned around and hugged Sei. "I've got the best members!" she said, showing no signs of stopping crying.
Sei looked over at Suyeon's shoulder at Elly. "Help me!" she mouthed.
Elly nodded, walked around in front of Suyeon, grabbed Suyeon's hands, and started pulling her to her feet. "Let's get you a shower and get you to bed," she said. Suyeon nodded and followed her to the bathroom, still sniffling.
Yoojung and Doyeon were sitting on the couch talking after everyone had gone to bed.
"We're going to regret this tomorrow," Doyeon said. "We're going to be dragging ass from not getting enough sleep."
"I know," Yoojung said. "And I'll fix you an Americano at breakfast to try to pep you up, but we've got to try to do something about Suyeon. Lucy's over the accident. Sei's over the accident, though I don't know if I can forgive that chaebol bitch for turning her into a Trekkie. But Suyeon's not past it. She's still just as upset about it as she was the day it happened!"
Doyeon nodded. "I know. And I can't even imagine what she must be feeling, feeling like the accident was her fault even though it wasn't and everyone's told her that about a million times. She feels like she broke Sei's arm and caused her to miss the last comeback, and it wasn't her fault at all."
"I know," Yoojung said. "We all know what the problem is, but we don't know what to do about it."
"Let's get Elly in on this," Doyeon said, pulling out her phone. "She might have some insight."
Yoojung's eyes grew wide. "You're going to wake Elly up?"
Doyeon hit send on the text she had listened, waited a moment, then heard a beep from the big bedroom. "I don't see any other way."
A couple of minutes later, Elly came toddling out of the bedroom, still clutching her pillow. "I figured you'd want to talk about this tonight," she said, "so I didn't even bother going to sleep."
"Sorry to keep you up," Doyeon said, "but we really need to do something about Suyeon. She's not getting past the accident."
Elly nodded as she said down next to Doyeon. "It's worse than you think," she said. She pulled up a picture on her phone. It showed a car's tire surrounded by a blue chalk outline. "I drew that outline the day after her new car was delivered," Elly explained, "and I took this picture today. She hasn't driven since the accident."
Yoojung's eyes got huge. "How did we not notice that?"
"Because she said she was driving," Elly said. "She'd leave saying she was going somewhere, and apparently she was walking out through the garage and catching a bus or a taxi on the other side of the garage, where we couldn't see her."
Doyeon nodded, taking this all in. "I'm guessing you've got an idea of how to deal with this?"
Elly nodded, then shrugged. "I've got an idea, but I'm not sure if it's a good idea."
"Well, it's more of an idea than we've got," Yoojung said, "so it's pretty much got to be better!"
Elly sat quietly, then pulled up the next day's schedule. "We don't have anything scheduled until 11 tomorrow morning. So I'm proposing we all get up at 6, get Suyeon up, and organize an unnie's breakfast. Force her to drive us."
"That could work. . ." Doyeon began.
"Or it could backfire horribly," Yoojung concluded for her.
"I know," Elly admitted. "But I've been working on this for the past month and haven't come up with anything better. If this doesn't work, then the alternative is to call Manager-nim, tell her what's going on, and that will mean therapists, possible hiatus, who knows what else."
"I don't see any other way," Doyeon said. "If we try it and it doesn't work, then we'll have to call Manager-nim. But at least we can try this first."
Elly looked at Yoojung. "You agree?"
Yoojung nodded.
"Okay then," Elly said as she stood up, "it's agreed. So now we all go to sleep. See you at 6!" And she turned and walked into the big bedroom.
As Doyeon and Yoojung walked to the small bedroom, they exchanged a glance and knew they were each asking the same question: Were they doing the right thing?
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
"I don't understand," Suyeon was saying as they walked down the sidewalk to the garage. "Why can't we just take the bus to have an unnies' breakfast?"
"Because," Yoojung said, "the bus will take longer and we're hungry."
"Plus," Doyeon added, "in your car we can choose the music we listen to."
"But in the car we'll have to find parking," Suyeon protested.
"Lee's American has a parking lot," Elly said.
Suyeon looked from one of them to another. "I don't stand a chance of changing your minds, do I?"
Yoojung shook her head. "Not at all. Now let's hurry up - I need some loaded hash browns!"
Suyeon sighed and led the way into the garage. She found her car and hit the button on her key fob to unlock the doors.
"Shotgun!" Yoojung called.
"You always get shotgun!" Doyeon protested.
"Because I always call it first," Yoojung explained, using the same patient tone she'd use to explain a very simple concept to a small child. Yoojung opened the front passenger door and climbed, leaving Doyeon and Elly to find their way into the back seat. Suyeon was already sitting in the driver's seat, holding her key fob and looking at it as if she'd never seen it before.
"It goes in the slot next to the steering wheel," Yoojung said helpfully.
"I know," Suyeon said. She reached forward to put the key fob in, then jerked her hand back as if she'd been burned. "I don't know if I can do this," she said. She looked around at them. "I haven't driven since the accident," she admitted.
"We know," Elly said. "That's why we're going out to unnies' breakfast this morning, so we can help you get past this hurdle. If we had noticed this problem sooner-"
"Or if you'd told us about it," Doyeon interjected.
Elly waved for Doyeon to be quiet. "Yes, or if you'd told us about it, we could have helped you sooner and it wouldn't be so difficult. But now we know about it, and you've got to get through this, and we're here to help you."
"I know it needs to happen," Suyeon said, clutching the keyfob with both hands, "but can't I do it tomorrow?"
Yoojung appeared to be on the verge of giving in when Elly spoke up. "No," she said firmly. "Tomorrow it'd be even harder than it is today. Suyeon, we wouldn't be doing this if we didn't care about you so much, but we do care about you so: Are you going to start the car and drive us to Lee's American for breakfast? Or am I going to call Manager-nim and tell her what's going on?"
Suyeon whipped her head around to look at Elly. "You wouldn't!"
Elly held up her phone so that Suyeon could see Manager-nim's number on the screen and her finger hovering over the call button. "Wouldn't I?" she asked. "I don't want to, Suyeon, but I care about you, so I'll do it if you make me, even though I know it'll mean therapists, possibly medication, maybe even a hiatus."
Yoojung grabbed Suyeon's hand, directing her attention back to the front of the car. "One step at a time," she said. "Start the engine."
Suyeon's hand was shaking so badly that she could barely put the fob in. She hesitated for a moment, then turned it. After a moment's hesitation, the engine started. Suyeon stared out the windshield, a haunted look on her face, her breaths starting to come faster and faster.
"Next step!" Yoojung said loudly, drawing Suyeon's attention away from her impending panic attack. "Put your foot on the brake, put the car in reverse, then slowly release the brake and back out of the parking space."
Suyeon followed Yoojung's directions, backing slowly out of the parking space. She then took a deep breath, put the car in drive, and put her foot on the gas, starting the car going forward.
"That's it!" Yoojung said. "You're doing great!"
"Gone to a special unnies' breakfast," Sei read aloud from the note that Elly had left on the kitchen table. "Don't get into trouble, and be dressed and ready for promos at 11:30!" She crumpled up the note and threw it in the recycling bin. "Why do the unnies get to have a special breakfast? We like breakfast too! I'd like to celebrate no longer being a prisoner in this apartment!"
"Trust me," Lua said, not even looking up from her phone, "whatever we end up doing will be more fun than what the unnies are doing. I guarantee it."
"How can you guarantee that?" Sei asked petulantly.
"Because I overhead the unnies talking last night," Lua said. "This 'special unnies' breakfast' is just an excuse for the other unnies to force Suyeon to drive." Seeing the look of incomprehension on Sei's face, Lua elaborated: "Apparently Suyeon hasn't driven since the accident." After waiting to see the realization dawning on Sei's face, Lua said "Now you can see how I can guarantee that we'll have more fun than they do. Now, go round up Lucy and Rina - we're going to Taco de Burro for breakfast, my treat."
"Taco de Burro?" Sei asked. "But that's all the way out in Yongsan-gu!"
Lua put her hand to her forehead dramatically. "Aaaallllllllllllllllll the way out in Yongsan-gu!" she said, drawing out the first word as long as humanly possible. She then fixed Sei with a gimlet stare. "It's fifteen minutes by bus. Counting time to get downstairs and wait for the bus, we can be there inside of half an hour!"
"Okay, so it's not so far," Sei conceded. "But really - Mexican food for breakfast?"
Lua nodded emphatically. "Mexican food is great for breakfast, and I've been wanting to get back to Taco de Burro for the past week and this is the first time we've had time. Now go get Lucy and Rina so we can get going. I've got some more texts to send."
The drive from the Fantagio dorm to Lee's American was normally 10 minutes, but between Suyeon consistently driving 5-10 kph below the speed limit, and the fact that she had to stop in a drug store parking lot for a brief cry, it took them 20 minutes. Still, they were all happy that Suyeon had been able to make the drive and no one mentioned the extra time. They were just happy that Suyeon had been able to take this major step forward.
Soon they were sitting around a table in the back of the restaurant, the trauma of the drive forgotten, looking at the menus.
"I don't even know why I'm looking at this," Yoojung said, closing her menu and putting it down on the table. "I already know what I'm going to order."
"You order the same thing every time we come here," Doyeon said. "Don't you ever get tired of it?"
Yoojung shook her head. "Nope. Why mess with perfection?"
Doyeon closed her menu and put it down on the table. "Then I'll try it too."
Suyeon looked at them. "Now you've got me curious," she said, putting down her menu. "I'm in."
Elly looked at Suyeon, her shock evident on her face. "But you don't even know what it is!"
Suyeon shrugged. "So? Worst case scenario, I don't like it and I've had one bad breakfast. After what I went through this morning to get here, I've decided I'm going to try to be more open to new experiences."
Elly looked impressed by this idea. "Okay then," she said, putting her menu down as well, "let's make it unanimous."
Soon after this, the waitress came over and asked if they were ready to order. "We are," Yoojung said, gathering up all the menus and handing them to her, "and we're going to make your life easy this morning. We're all having the same thing: Hash browns, scattered, smothered, covered, chunked, diced, and peppered."
The waitress laughed. "You're making my life easy, but you're making the chef's life hard!" she said. "But it'll all be out in just a minute." She left to take their order to the kitchen.
"Okay," Elly said. "Now that we've ordered, what did we just order?"
"Well, you know what hash browns are, right?" Yoojung asked.
Elly nodded.
"Well, 'scattered' means they scatter them around instead of leaving them as a cake, so you get more crispy edges. 'Smothered' means they put sauteed onions on them, 'covered' means melted cheese, 'chunked' means pieces of ham, 'diced' means fried diced tomatoes, and 'peppered' means jalapeno peppers."
"They do all that to hash browns?" Elly asked.
Yoojung nodded. "They also do 'capped,' which is mushrooms, 'topped,' which is chili, and 'country,' which is sausage gravy, but I think that's too much."
Suyeon opened her eyes wide in mock astonishment. "There's something that's too much for you?"
"You'll see," Yoojung said. "Once you try these hash browns, you'll agree that there's no need to add anything else."
Just then the waitress came back, putting a huge plate of loaded hash browns in front of each of them. Suyeon tilted her head around, looking at her plate from different angles. "There are, theoretically, potatoes under here, right?"
Yoojung playfully smacked her on the shoulder. "Just try it," she said. "You'll see."
As it turned out, Lua's estimate of 30 minutes to get to Taco de Burro wasn't far off the mark. They ordered their food, then Lua took them to the big booth in the back to wait for it.
Lucy looked around at the U-shaped booth, which seemed to be made for more than four people. "Shouldn't we sit at one of the smaller booths, in case a big group needs this one?"
Lua shook her head. "Trust me," she said. "We need this one. You'll see."
"Okay," Lucy said with a shrug, then turned back to talking to Sei.
Lua looked around. She was sitting on one end of the U, with Rina next to her, then Lucy, then Sei. She shook her head. "Everybody scoot around," she said, getting up and standing next Sei. When nobody moved, she added, "Just trust me." So they all scooted over and Lua sat down, so that Sei and Lucy were in the middle of the U, with Lua on one end and Rina on the other.
Rina wondered why Lua had made them switch seats, but she figured if she asked, her only answer would be "just trust me," so she waited to see if the reason became apparent. She was still waiting a few minutes later, when the waitress brought their food. They had each ordered a different kind of taco and then swapped them around so that everyone had an assortment of tacos. She had just picked up a shrimp taco and was about to take a bite when someone sat down next to her. She looked to see who it was, and was so surprised she almost dropped her taco.
"Jeongyeon?" she asked incredulously.
"Oh good," Jeongyeon said with a laugh. "You still recognize me."
"Wh-what are you doing here?" Rina asked, her confusion written all over her face.
"Oh," Jeongyeon said, looking nonchalantly up at the ceiling, "I was led to believe that some of my juniors in Weki Meki would be having breakfast here today, so I thought I'd come offer my support for their impending comeback." She looked at Rina and smiled. "At least, that's what the media will say if photographers catch a picture of us together." She leaned over and gave Rina.
Rina managed to snap out of her confusion in time to return Jeongyeon's hug. Once Jeongyeon released her, she looked over at Lua. "So that's why it was so important that we come here!" she said. "And why you made us switch seats. And all the mysterious texting."
Lua nodded, a smile lighting up her face. "And unless I've very much mistaken, the last member of our party has just finished ordering." She waved toward the front of the restaurant and in just a moment Jennie had joined them, greeting Lua with a warm hug and a surreptitious kiss on the cheek.
"Imagine running into all of you here!" Jennie said, smiling at all of them.
"Apparently Lua's mind has been working overtime this morning, planning something like this," Sei said.
"We can't all be as fortunate as you," Lua said, "some of us have to work harder at it."
Lua smiled to assure Sei that this was intended as a joke, but Sei still couldn't help thinking how lucky she and Lucy were to be in Weki Meki together. She couldn't imagine seeing Lua as rarely as Lua saw Jennie or Rina show Jeongyeon. Suddenly, she felt Lucy reach over and squeeze her hand. Sei looked up at her. "Be happy," Lucy mouthed. Sei nodded, doing her best to smile, but Lucy could still see a little sadness in her eyes.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Weki Meki had the evening off, but due to their partners being out on tour, Rina and Suyeon were sitting in the common room watching TV. Suddenly the doorbell rang; Suyeon jumped up to answer the door.
"Jeongyeon!" she exclaimed in surprise.
"Hi!" Jeongyeon said. "Is Rina here?"
"Here I am!" Rina said, popping out from behind Suyeon. "I thought you were in Japan?" She ushered Jeongyeon into the apartment and shut the door behind them.
"We were supposed to be," Jeongyeon said, "but our flight got rescheduled at the last minute and so. . . here I am!"
"I've got to go take care of some things in my room," Suyeon said, waving to Rina and Jeongyeon and heading for her room. "Have a good visit!"
As soon as she heard Suyeon's door click shut, Rina launched herself at Jeongyeon, showering her with kisses. Once they finally came up for air, Rina asked "Do people know you're here? Won't you get in trouble?"
Jeongyeon shook her head. "Remember when we used Chaeyoung's hoodie to smuggle you through the studio and onto the bus? Well, right now Chaeyoung is using my hoodie to smuggle her boyfriend onto the bus and then into the dorm."
Rina frowned as she led Jeongyeon over to the couch and sat down with her. "You'd think that as long as it's been since your debut and as successful as you've been, JYP would let you have more freedom than they do."
Jeongyeon shook her head. "If anything, they've watched us more closely the more successful we've been. I think they're terrified that one of us will get pregnant."
Rina gasped, her eyes huge. "We should have been using protection, shouldn't we? What if I knock you up?"
"I think we'll be okay," Jeongyeon said with a laugh, which Rina soon joined in. "Seriously, though," Jeonyeon said once they'd stopped laughing, "Dahyun's the one they really need to be concerned about."
"Really?" Rina asked, tilting her head to the side. "But she seems so. . . wholesome."
"That's the image she puts forward," Jeongyeon said, "because she was raised in a religious family and she wants to stay on their good side. But in reality, once she got to Seoul. . ." Jeongyeon paused for a moment, trying to figure out the best way to say this. "Let's just say that it's been educational, some of the things I've walked in on Dahyun doing with people."
Rina's jaw dropped as she tried to process this new piece of information. Jeongyeon burst out laughing at her. "If you could see the look on your face right now!" She stood up and held out her hand to Rina. "Come on," she said, "It's my first time at your apartment. Show me around."
"That won't take long," Rina said as she took Jeongyeon's hand and stood up. "The common room here takes up about half the apartment." She then led Jeongyeon through the kitchen, then pointed out the doors to the bathroom and the small bedroom, then stopped outside the door to the big bedroom. "And here's the door to my bedroom," she said as she ended the tour.
"Ooohhh," Jeongyeon exclaimed, "the mysterious Rina's bedroom!"
Rina blushed. "It's not as exciting as all that," she said. "Remember, I share a room with four of my members."
"Still," Jeongyeon said, nudging Rina toward the door, "I want to see it. I want to see if I can guess which bed is yours."
"Okay," Rina said, "but don't blame me if it totally blows your image of me."
Jeongyeon scoffed. "Like that could happen. I've always thought you were awesome."
Rina's blush deepened, and she turned and led Jeongyeon into the room. "Well, here it is," she said, encompassing the whole room with a wave of her arm.
Jeongyeon shut the door behind herself and slowly walked into the center of the room and looked around. "Well," she said, making a show of examining all the beds, "I know you're afraid of heights, so that rules out all the top bunks right away." She looked over at Lua's bed. "And I know you wouldn't leave your bed that messy," she said. "I mean, the time you came over to my room, you left the bed neater than it was when you came in."
Rina had almost stopped blushing, but now she started again.
Jeongyeon smiled impishly at her, then turned to face Elly's bed. "This bed is neat enough, but that pattern is just so not you, which leaves. . ." She turned to Rina's bed. "This one!" She sat down on Rina's bed and her hand over the satin sheets. "Such nice sheets, but you've never had me over. Should I be worried?"
Rina rushed across the room and practically tackled Jeongyeon in her eagerness. Jeongyeon wrapped her arms around Rina and started kissing her. "Now," Jeongyeon said, leaning her forehead against Rina's, "I showed you what I wear to sleep in. Why don't you show me what you wear?"
Rina wished she had something more exciting to show Jeongyeon than a long T-shirt and her regular underwear, but she had to trust that because she would be in it, it would be enough to satisfy Jeongyeon.
Elly and K.Will had just finished a round of miniature golf and were in his car on their way to dinner.
"So tell me," he said as he navigated the Seoul traffic with a nonchalance that always made Elly kind of nervous, "now that Suyeon has a new boyfriend, has your manager come up with plans to find boyfriends for Yoojung and Doyeon?"
Elly laughed. "I imagine she probably has," she said, "but she certainly hasn't shared them with me."
K.Will shook his head as he changed lanes and exited the freeway. "You're certainly going to have a tough time keeping all your members in the closet."
Elly agreed. "We certainly are. I think Lucy's going to be the hardest to keep hidden. She's still a couple of years away from having to find a 'boyfriend,' and she flies into an incoherent rage anytime anyone mentions it."
"That's certainly understandable," K.Will said as he changed lanes. "Imagine if you had to pretend to be gay every time you were out in public. Then imagine you had to take that pretense so far as to get a girlfriend to act gay with in public. I think you'd be pissed off too. I think Korea could use more pissed-off young people like Lucy."
Elly smiled over at K.Will. "I love it when you get so political like that," she said. "It makes me so happy."
K. Will glanced over at her. "Happy enough that we should skip dinner and had straight back to my place?"
Elly playfully slapped him on the arm. "Don't you dare! I'm starving!"
"Well," he said, rubbing his arm as if she had hurt him, "we certainly can't have that. I don't know if I'd survive given how violent you get when you're hungry." He made a quick right turn into the parking lot. "Fortunately, we're here, and our reservations are for about three minutes from now."
Elly looked up and gasped. "The Crimson Dragon?"
K. Will nodded as he pulled the car up to the valet station. "I hope that's okay," he said. "He got out of the car, accepted the claim ticket from the valet, then walked around the car to open Elly's door. "IU came here with some of your members," he said as he helped her out of the car, "and couldn't stop raving about how great it was, so I figured I'd bring you here."
"But. . ." Elly sputtered as he led her into the restaurant, "how were you even able to get a table?"
K. Will laughed as he handed their reservation card to the hostess, who commenced to lead them to their table in a private dining room. "You'd be surprised at what I can do," he said. "I generally don't make full use of the advantages of being a celebrity, but in this case I made an exception. It's amazing how quickly a table became available once they heard who was calling."
Elly smiled at him. "Just promise me you won't ever use this power for evil," she said playfully.
Just then the waiter showed up, bringing their menus, along with a selection of banchan. "Would you like to order a drink while you're deciding on dinner? Or would like a moment to peruse the cocktail menu first?"
"I know what I'd like," K. Will said. He looked at Elly and, receiving a nod from her, proceeded to order. "I'd like an old fashioned. A double."
"I'll have the same," Elly added.
Once the waiter had gone, K. Will looked across the table at Elly. "When did you start drinking whiskey? You would usually order a white wine spritzer when we'd go out."
"I wanted to try something new," she said. "Doyeon gave me an article about the importance of trying new things, and I'm giving it a shot."
"I'll have to send Doyeon my thanks," K. Will said with a wink. "I like to see you trying new things."
Elly blushed, but was saved from the need to respond by the waiter returning with their drinks.
Yoojung was not having fun. Doyeon had dragged her to this party full of all her fashion industry friends and then basically abandoned her. Yoojung had tried initiating conversations with several people, but quickly discovered that if you didn't know the right people, then as far as these people were concerned, you didn't exist. In the end, Yoojung found herself looking out the window, nursing a bottle of beer.
"At least this apartment has a great view of Seoul," she thought. "I'd love to have a place like this."
"The city's beautiful at night, isn't it?"
Startled, Yoojung looked over to discover that she'd been joined at the window by an older woman who looked vaguely familiar.
"I don't think we've met," the woman said, extending her hand to Yoojung. "I'm Kim Go-eun."
Something clicked in Yoojung's head. "I know you!" she exclaimed. "You were in 'Cheese In the Trap'! I loved that show!" Suddenly remembering her manners, Yoojung shook Go-eun's hand and said "I'm Choi Yoojung."
"Nice to meet you, Yoojung," Go-eun said. "You looked like you were having about as much fun as I am, so I thought perhaps we could entertain each other. So, how do you know Anton?"
Yoojung shrugged. "I don't, really. My friend is a model and she brought me here so she wouldn't have to come alone, but then she disappeared, so I've been on my own most of the evening."
Go-eun shook her head sympathetically. "That's just the worst," she said.
"What about you?" Yoojung asked. "How do you know Anton? Are you getting into modelling now?"
Go-eun laughed. "Oh, no. I'm too old to start out in modeling. I'm just here because I'm Anton's neighbor. He always invites me to his parties so I won't call management to complain about the noise, and I always come because he always hires the best bartenders." Go-eun snagged two drinks from the tray of a passing waitress and hanged one to Yoojung. "Here. I think you'll enjoy this better than what you've been drinking."
Yoojung tentatively took a sip of the drink, being careful not to poke herself in the eye with the toothpick stuck through the olive floating in the drink. It wasn't bad. It reminded her of soju, if soju was stronger and had an herbal flavor. She took another, larger sip.
"Whoa, not so fast!" Go-eun said. "You won't be able to entertain me if you drink yourself into incoherence." They both laughed at this. Suddenly, a look of recognition came of Go-eun's face. "I recognize you! You were in I.O.I and then you joined that other group - I can't remember the name. Weme-something."
"Weki Meki" Yoojung said.
"That's it!" Go-eun said, snapping her fingers. She looked around. "You know, if we go out on the balcony, the view of the city is even better."
"There's a balcony?" Yoojung asked.
Go-eun nodded. "Follow me," she said. Go-eun began threading her way through the crowd, with Yoojung following in her wake. On the way, Go-eun managed to relieve a waiter of a tray with half-full of drinks, which she managed to carry through the crowd without spilling a drop. Yoojung had admit she was impressed. Finally, Go-eun came to a stop in front of a purple velvet curtain. She pressed a button on the wall next to the curtain and it slid open a little bit. Go-eun opened the sliding glass door behind it, then beckoned Yoojung through. Once Yoojung was out on the balcony, Go-eun handed her the tray of drinks, then reached inside and pulled the curtain shut, then finally shut the door before turning back to Yoojung.
"Anton doesn't like people being out here during his parties," she said, "but he knows better than to object if I come out here, and he won't mind you being here since you're with me." She took the tray of drinks from Yoojung, put it on a low table, then sat down on a wicker loveseat next to it, overlooking the city. She patted the cushion for Yoojung to come sit next to her.
Once Yoojung was sitting on the loveseat next to Go-eun, Go-eun grabbed them each a cocktail from the tray and they started talking. Realizing she was now holding two cocktails, because she still had the half-finished one from inside, Yoojung finished that one and put it on the table, holding the full one in reserve for later. For the first time, Yoojung was actually enjoying herself at one of Doyeon's fashion-world parties. She lost track of time as she and Go-eun sat on the balcony and talked and drank, watching the city spread out below them. After a while, Go-eun went to get another drink and noticed that all the glasses on the tray were empty. She stood up, only a little unsteady, and picked up the tray.
"I'll be right back," she said. "Got to go mug another waiter. You stay right there." She turned to go inside, but as she was about to open the door, she was surprised to have it flung open and for Doyeon to come out.
"There you are!" Doyeon snapped and Yoojung. "Come on. We need to go, now!"
"Why?" Yoojung asked languidly, slurring her words. "I've been having fun talking and drinking with my new friend Go-eun. Go-eun, this is Doyeon. Doyeon, Go-eun."
Doyeon stomped past Go-eun as if she didn't even see her and pulled Yoojung up from the counch. "Come on," she said, "we've got to go home. It's important." She put her arm around Yoojung and started pulling her toward the door.
"Bye Go-eun," Yoojung slurred, waving at her as she went by. "See you later!"
Once she realized that Doyeon was not going to relent about them going, Yoojung cooperated more, even putting her own shoes on, and only falling over once in the process.
When they were in the cab on the way back to the apartment, Yoojung looked at Doyeon and asked "Are you even going to tell me why we had to leave so quick? I was finally having fun at one of your fashion parties and you dragged me away. I didn't even have time to get Go-eun's number!"
"Yoojung, you were on the balcony for almost four hours," Doyeon snapped. "I thought you'd left - no one had seen you for hours. Finally I heard one of the waiters mentioning Go-eun taking a petite cutie out on the balcony earlier in the evening and I knew that had to be you."
"The waiter thought I was cute?" Yoojung asked, swaying in her seat.
"Everyone thinks you're cute," Doyeon said, "but that's not the point."
"Then what is the point." Yoojung asked, her face turning a sort of palish green. "I think I'm going to be sick."
Doyeon just barely managed to get the driver to pull the car over so Yoojung could open the door and vomiting on the site of the road.
"Don't worry about it," Doyeon said as she wiped Yoojung's mouth with a tissue. "We'll talk about it tomorrow." But Yoojung was already asleep.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Doyeon and Suyeon were sitting in a booth at the coffee shop. Doyeon had just finished telling Suyeon about Yoojung's experience the night before, but she was afraid Suyeon was missing the point.
"I don't understand," Suyeon said. "So she spent a few hours talking and drinking with an actress. What's the big deal?"
Doyeon rolled her eyes. How could Suyeon work in the entertainment industry and not know these things? "Kim Go-Eun is bad news. She has a reputation - a well-deserved reputation - for preying on younger women, using them and then tossing them aside when they cease to amuse her."
"And that's what you think she was doing with Yoojung?" Suyeon asked.
Doyeon nodded. "That's exactly what I think she was trying to do with Yoojung," she said.
"But Yoojung left the party with you," Suyeon protested.
"True, so that's a point in our favor," Doyeon said, "but we don't know what happened during the time they were out on the balcony together. She has a way of saying things that worm deep inside your brain, working on you even when she's not around. She's a master manipulator."
"But how do you-" Suyeon began, then suddenly the realization dawned on her. "You were one of the. . ."
Doyeon nodded. "When I first came to Seoul." She took a sip of her coffee, then sat there silently for so long that Suyeon started to think she wasn't going to say any more about it. Then she put her cup down and went on. "I was auditioning anywhere that would take a look at me, trying to get an agency - any agency - to take me on. I didn't care if they trained me as a singer, dancer, rapper, actress or model. I was just determined that I was going to make it big." She took another sip of her coffee, then went on. "One night, this girl who was one of my roommates took me as her plus-one to a big party at a talent agent's house. I never did get to meet the agent - I don't even know if he was there - but I did meet Kim Go-Eun." She paused again, staring off into the distance, then shook her head to clear it and went on. "She was much the same then as she is now: Beautiful, charming, and underneath it all controlling and manipulative. I left the party with her, spent every spare minute for the next two weeks with her - hell, I missed classes and auditions to be with her - I'd run to her whenever she called, and then all of a sudden she lost interest, moved on to the next new girl."
"And you never told anyone," Suyeon said quietly.
Doyeon shook her head. "I just couldn't. Fortunately soon after that I was picked up by Fantagio and I didn't have to think about her again, until last night."
"So wait," Sei said, confused, "Doyeon did what?"
"She stormed out onto the balcony and basically dragged me out of the party," Yoojung said.
Sei shook her head. "That doesn't sound like Doyeon."
"Trust me, it happened," Yoojung said, taking a bag of popcorn out of the microwave and pouring into two bowls.
"Well, you did say you threw up during the taxi ride home," Sei said, picking up a bowl of popcorn and eating a piece. "Maybe she was just trying to get you out of the party to keep you from embarrassing yourself."
"But she didn't know I was drunk until she came out on the balcony," Yoojung said, "and she came out onto the balcony with the intent of taking me away from there. The fact that I ended up being a little bit drunk was just an unexpected bonus for her." She ate a couple of pieces of popcorn, obviously deep in thought, then turned to Sei and said "Look, I know Doyeon is your unnie and you don't want to think ill of her, but something is weird with what happened last night."
"Maybe it's something to do with Kim Go-Eun," Sei said. "I don't really know anything about her, though."
"I looked her up online this morning," Yoojung said. "Nothing. I mean, obviously not nothing. But nothing except official announcements about her career. There are absolutely zero rumors floating around about her."
Sei frown and she ate some more popcorn. "Do you think Doyeon was jealous?"
Yoojung shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine."
"Did you try asking her about it?" Sei asked.
"Well, obviously I was in no shape to ask last night. Actually, I think I probably asked, but I was in no shape to listen to her answer," Yoojung said. "And this morning she was already gone with Suyeon when I woke up."
Sei shook her head. "There's something odd doing on here, but I don't think there's anything you can do except wait for Doyeon to get back and then ask her."
Lucy walked into the kitchen just in time to hear the end of this. "Ask Doyeon about what?"
"Weirdness about last night's party," Yoojung said.
"Oh, well, I'm sure Doyeon can sort it out," Lucy said. She bent down and gave Sei a kiss. "You ready to go to the grocery store?" she asked Sei.
Sei nodded. "Let me go get my purse." She looked at Yoojung. "You want to come with us?"
Yoojung shook her head. "I've still got a little bit of a headache. Being in a crowded grocery store? Not on the menu today."
Sei nodded - even though she'd never had a hangover, she had had a headache, so she knew how miserable it could be to be out in public with a headache. "Anything you need us to pick up for you?" she asked.
Yoojung shook her head. "I'm good. Though if you stopped by the coffee shop on the way back, I wouldn't say no to an iced americano."
Sei smiled. "We'll see what we can do."
Once Sei and Lucy were gone, Yoojung took her popcorn and sat down on the couch. She was about to turn on the TV when her phone beeped. Thinking it might be Doyeon, she eagerly checked it. She was surprised to see a message from Kim Go-Eun reading "Hey! You left pretty suddenly last night! Is everything okay? Want to go out for coffee sometime? Maybe now?"
Yoojung hesitated - maybe there was a valid reason that Doyeon had dragged her away from Kim Go-Eun, but if there was, wouldn't a web search have turned up something? Maybe Doyeon was just being controlling. "It's not like I've ever given her a reason not to trust me," Yoojung thought to herself. "There's no reason for her to be trying to control who I can and can't be friends with." Nodding decisively, she opened the message from Kim Go-Eun and responded. "I'm free now. Where did you have in mind?"
Suyeon and Doyeon came home, intending to talk to Yoojung, only to find Sei and Lucy to be the only ones in the apartment.
"Do you know where Yoojung is?" Doyeon asked.
Sei shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine. She was here when Lucy and I left for the grocery store. We asked her if she wanted to come with us, but she said she had a headache and asked us to pick her up an iced americano on the way home. So we went to the store, came back to find she wasn't here."
"I've got a bad feeling about this," Doyeon said.
"Does this have anything to do with Kim Go-Eun?" Lucy asked.
Doyeon whipped around to look at her. "Where did you hear that name?"
"Yoojung was talking about her," Lucy said with a shrug. "She said she was sitting on the balcony drinking and talking with Kim Go-Eun and you came out and dragged her out of the party and brought her home."
"That's true," Doyeon said, "but there was a good reason."
Seeing Sei and Lucy looked dubiously at Doyeon, Suyeon said "There is. She told me about it."
"Well, you need to tell Yoojung," Sei said. "She's pretty upset about the whole thing. She thinks you don't trust her."
"I trust her fine," Doyeon said. "It's Kim Go-Eun I don't trust."
Just then Elly came into the apartment. Seeing Suyeon, Doyeon, Sei, and Lucy have a serious conversation in the middle of the living room, she stopped short. "Is there drama going on here?" she asked. "Because if there is, I'll go back out."
"No, no drama," Suyeon said.
Elly looked around the room. "This doesn't look like no drama."
"There'll probably be drama when Yoojung gets home," Sei said.
Elly looked at Doyeon, who nodded.
"Any idea when that will be?" Elly asked.
They all shook their heads.
"Hopefully it won't be for a while," Elly said. "Like, long enough for K.Will to finish his round of golf and come pick me up, because I'm having a great day and I really don't want any drama." And with that, she went into the big bedroom and shut the door behind her.
"Do we know where Lua and Rina are?" Suyeon asked.
"Rina's on a date with Jeongyeon, and Lua went along so it wouldn't look like a date," Lucy said "Jeongyeon's getting worried because there's been this one photographer who keeps turning up."
"That could be nothing out of the ordinary," Suyeon said, "but still, it's good that they're being careful."
"Well," Sei said, grabbing Lucy's hand, "we were about to go out to see a movie, maybe get a bite to eat after. Text me when the drama's over so we'll know it's safe to come back?"
"You're just going to bail on us like that?" Doyeon asked.
Sei nodded. "Yeah. Yoojung's pretty pissed with you, and you say you had a good reason but won't say what it is so, yeah, this sounds like exactly the sort of drama we don't want to be anywhere near." She headed for the door of the apartment, dragging Lucy behind her.
Once they were gone, Doyeon turned to Suyeon. "Do you think I should have told them?"
Suyeon shrugged. "I don't know. I mean, on the one hand, you had to tell me a lot of private stuff you've never told any of us before in order to explain the situation, but on the other, they talked to Yoojung first, and I'm sure that without knowing the backstory her version of events sounds more sympathetic."
Doyeon nodded.
Lua's phone beeped several times in fast succession. She pulled in the oars, fished it out of her pocket, and read the barrage of messages she had received. Once she had finished, she looked up at Rina and Jeongyeon, sitting across from her in the stern of the rowboat.
"So, ummm. . . once we're done messing around in boats, what do you say we go somewhere and get some dinner?"
Rina looked at her. "I thought you were anxious to get back? Now all of a sudden you want to spend more time with us?" She laughed softly.
"I was anxious to get back," Lua said, "but after reading the messages Sei just sent me, I'm in no hurry to be anywhere near the dorm."
Rina sat up, nearly upsetting the boat. "What happened?"
"Apparently last night at a party," Lua said, leaning closer to the others so she could talk quieter - not that there was another boat anywhere near them, but you it pays to be careful - "Yoojung was talking to some actress and Doyeon came and basically dragged her out of the conversation and out of the party, and apparently they're about to fight about it, as soon as Yoojung gets back from wherever she's disappeared to."
"That doesn't sound like Doyeon," Rina said, shaking her head.
"Did Sei say who the actress was?" Jeongyeon asked.
"Let me check," Lua said. She read back through the messages, then looked up. "It was Kim Go-Eun. Does that-" Lua didn't even have to finish her question: The look on Jeongyeon's face showed that the name obviously did mean something to her.
"Kim Go-Eun is bad news," Jeongyeon said. "If Yoojung is getting mixed up with her, you're definitely going to have problems."
"If she's such bad news, why is she still in the industry?" Rina asked.
Jeongyeon shrugged. "Nobody knows," she said. "Either she's the secret daughter of someone very important, or else she's got career-ending blackmail material about someone very important."
"What's so bad about her?" Lua asked.
"She's a predator," Jeongyeon said. "She befriends trainees and idol wannabes - of which there's a never-ending supply in Seoul - uses them for sex, then casts them aside when she loses interest."
"But Yoojung's not a trainee or a wannabe," Rina pointed out.
Jeongyeon shrugged. "I don't know. Either Yoojung's height caused her to underestimate her age, or else she's decided she wants a challenge and has started preying on idols." Jeongyeon paused for a moment. "Yoojung should know better. Your unnies should have warned you about her."
"Fantagio tried to keep us away from Hello Venus as much as they can," Lua said. "I think they think if we can compare notes with them, we'll see how poorly they're managing us. As if we couldn't see it on our own."
Jeongyeon nodded. "That would explain it. Your company never gave your unnies a chance to be proper unnies to you. It's possible their unnies never warned them, even." She looked at Lua. "I think your idea for dinner is a good one - Doyeon and Yoojung aren't going to want an audience for this."
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Sei walked into the apartment to see Doyeon and Suyeon sitting on the couch, intently staring at the door. She stopped short, almost causing Lucy to run into her.
"What. . . what's going on?" Sei asked as she moved to the side so that Lucy could come in and close the door.
"Yoojung still hasn't come back," Doyeon said, her face grim.
"And you haven't called her?" Lucy asked.
"Of course we-" Doyeon began, then realized she was starting to yell at Lucy, who'd done nothing to deserve getting yelled at. "We tried calling her, but apparently her phone's turned off."
Sei's face took on a distinctly worried cast. "Do you think she's. . ." She trailed off, unwilling to finish the question.
"I don't know what to think," Doyeon said, "but that's the only explanation that makes sense. I-"
Just then the door opened behind Lucy and Yoojung came in.
"Where were you?" Doyeon asked, her voice menacing in a way the others had never heard before.
"Hi Doyeon! Nice to see you!" Yoojung said, in a tone that gave the lie to her words.
Sei, Lucy, and Suyeon moved to the edges of the room, out of the line of fire, as this confrontation between Doyeon and Yoojung was shaping up to be the fight of the century.
"Were you out with Kim Go-Eun?" Doyeon asked, her voice low and even, cutting through the air like a knife.
"And what if I was?" Yoojung asked. "Am I not allowed to have friends outside Weki Meki now?"
"That's not it," Doyeon said. "I'm scared for you! Kim Go-Eun is bad news!"
"What are you talking about?" Yoojung asked. "She's never been anything but nice to me. I mean, yeah, she drinks a little, but lots of people do that. What are you so worried about?" Suddenly a look of recognition dawned on Yoojung's face. "I see. You've heard the rumors about her."
"Rumors?" Doyeon asked, momentarily taken aback my Yoojung's sudden change of tack.
Yoojung nodded. "She warmed me about this. She's been the victim of a lot of gossip and rumors being spread about her. Don't worry about it. It's just gossip. There's nothing to it."
"Just gossip?" Doyeon asked, incredulous. "She's lying to you. She's a predator."
Yoojung scoffed. "She couldn't be. She's so nice. I just spent a couple of hours chatting with her in a coffee shop and she's perfectly nice."
"That's what she wants to you to think," Doyeon said. "Let me guess: You remind her to herself when she was younger. She's got a feeling about you - there are great things in your future. You're so empathic - you understand her better than anyone."
Yoojung didn't have to say anything - the stunned look on her face told them all that Kim Go-Eun had said exactly these things to her.
Doyeon nodded. "She said exactly those things to me. And to any number of young singers, models, actresses, and wannabes over the years."
"What?" Yoojung asked.
Doyeon pulled out her phone, swiped the screen a couple of times, and held it out to show Yoojung a picture of a much younger Doyeon drinking in a bar with a slightly younger-looking Kim Go-Eun. "Before I joined Fantagio, I was one of her toys," Doyeon said. "Oh, I didn't see it that way. I thought I was so lucky to have such a successful woman taking an interest in me. But I was just a toy for her. And you know what kids do with toys when they get tired of them? They throw them away."
Yoojung just stood there, her eyes welling up. She started to cry, and then to cry harder. Doyeon stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Yoojung, and Yoojung just collapsed into her. Doyeon almost fell but managed to gently lower Yoojung to the floor and sat there stroking Yoojung's hair as the tears continued to flow.
Suyeon was going to take Sei and Lucy out of the apartment, but Doyeon and Yoojung were blocking the door, so she ushered them into the big bedroom, then went in after them and shut the door.
"Wow, that was hard to see," Lucy said.
Sei nodded in agreement. "I'm going to text Rina and Lua and tell them to stay out a little longer."
"I seems like they've already decided to do that," Suyeon said, "but giving them official notice of the state of things here can't hurt."
They all sat quietly for a minute, each lost within their own thoughts, until eventually Lucy asked "What do we do now?"
Suyeon shrugged. "I'm not sure," she said. "I just. . . this is not something I was prepared for."
"I don't think any of us were prepared for this," Sei said, sniffling and wiping her eyes. "Doyeon and Yoojung were together before Weki Meki was brought together. We've never been a band without them being together."
"I don't think they're going to split up," Suyeon said, reaching you and patting Sei on the shoulder. "If they were going to split up, Doyeon wouldn't have fought so hard to protect Yoojung from Kim Go-Eun. And I really don't think Yoojung saw Kim Go-Eun as anything more than a friend. On the other hand, if Doyeon hadn't known who Kim Go-Eun was, who knows what could have happened. I'm just glad we're between promotions right now - I can't imagine them having to deal with this while simultaneously looking happy and untroubled for the Ki-Lings."
For the next few days, they were all rather quiet and subdued. Suyeon's prediction that Doyeon and Yoojung wouldn't break up turned out to be correct. After a couple of days, Suyeon's being glad that they weren't in a promotion turned into wishing that they were in a promotion - Yoojung was so distraught over the events that she really needed something to snap her out of it. On top of that, Sei was still upset over things - none of them had realized how much she looked at Doyeon and Yoojung for a model of a successful lesbian relationship and consequently how much it would upset her if they broke up. When neither of them cheered up after a couple of days, Suyeon realized that something had to be done. She surreptitiously called Doyeon and Lucy into the small room for a meeting to try to figure out what they could possibly do.
"I'm sure you know what problem we've got to deal with here," Suyeon said.
"Sei and Yoojung," Lucy said, while Doyeon nodded emphatically in agreement.
"Exactly," Suyeon said. "I know something needs to be done, but I'm not exactly sure of what, so I was hoping you two might have some ideas."
Lucy just shook her head and looked hopefully at Doyeon, who was obviously deep in thought. She and Suyeon just sat and waited for Doyeon to have an idea.
"We've got to shock them, put them in unfamiliar situations," Doyeon said. "Something to snap them out of the ruts they've fallen into and hopefully put them on a better path forward."
"I like the sounds of this idea," Suyeon said, "but I was hoping you'd have something a little more like a plan."
"As it happens, I do," Doyeon said. "We put them in enjoyable situations that they haven't been in before. Something outside their usual experiences."
"Okay," Lucy said hesitantly. "I can see the value of that, but what sort of situations?"
"I was thinking," Doyeon said, "that it would be best to have them out with people other than the ones they're usually with. I'll take Sei out to do an activity, and you two can take Yoojung."
"I can see what you're getting at," Suyeon said. "Where should we take her, though?"
Doyeon shrugged. "Doesn't really matter," she said. "All that matters is that it's something out of the ordinary and that she enjoys it."
"We can probably thing of something," Lucy said, looking at Suyeon, who nodded her agreement. "Should we do it tonight?"
Doyeon shook her head. "We always go out at night," she said. "We should get them up early tomorrow morning for a daytime activity, then meet up at Lee's American around sunset and have breakfast for dinner."
"So we've got a little time to plan," Lucy said thoughtfully. "Just not much."
Through the door they could hear Sei asking Yoojung and Lua if they knew where Lucy was.
"That's my cue to go," she said. She got up and headed out the door. As she turned to shut the door, she called back in "Thanks for listening, unnies. I really do feel much better."
"There you are!" Sei said. Having heard what Lucy had just said, she got a concerned look on her face. "What's wrong?" she asked. "Why did you need to go talk to the unnies about something?"
"I was just worried about our next comeback," Lucy said, telling the first lie that came to mind. "I haven't really liked what the stylists have done with me for the last couple of comebacks, so I talked to Suyeon and Doyeon for some advice on how to handle it."
Sei nodded. "And they had ideas?"
"Oh, yeah," Lucy said, grabbing Sei's hand and leading her into the kitchen. "Suyeon's going to mention it to Manager-nim the next time she talks to her and ask Manager-nim to talk to the stylists."
"That's a good idea," Sei said with a nod as she helped Lucy lay things out for tea. "They're more likely to listen to a manager than they are to one of us."
Early the next morning, Sei found herself being shaken awake by Doyeon. "Come on," Doyeon said. "You and I are going someplace today. We'll grab breakfast on the way. Just get dressed and come on."
Sei tried to ask where they were going, but Doyeon just shushed her and said she'd explain it all soon enough.
Once Sei was dressed and ready to go, Doyeon let her down to the street, where they caught a bus on a line that Sei didn't recognize. As they rode alone, Doyeon pointed out various places along the way that she apparently thought were important, but every time Sei tried turning the conversation to their destination, Doyeon would see another sight she needed to point out. Eventually Sei got tired of asking - she figured Doyeon would tell her eventually, or else they'd get there and then she'd know. But still, she was eaten up with curiosity wondering where they were going.
After riding for about half an hour, they got off the bus to buy gilgeori toast and coffee from a street vendor. They ate their breakfast while sitting on a bench in a small park and people-watching, then got onto a different bus. They rode this bus for 45 minutes, eventually leaving Seoul and heading out into the country. Sei started asking about their destination again, but Doyeon kept putting her off. Finally, Doyeon said "This is our stop" and pulled the cord to signal the driver. Once the bus had stopped, she and Sei got off at a convenience store in the middle of nowhere.
Just then a young man in a brown leather jacket came of the store. He saw them and waved. "Hey, Kim Doyeon!" he called out, Doyeon waved back, then walked over and introduced him to Sei - his name was Minjae.
"My grandmother's getting everything ready for you," he said, "so she was too busy to pick you up. That's why I'm here."
Doyeon looked around. "So where's the truck?"
Minjae scoffed. "Truck? Where's the fun in that? You said you wanted to show your friend a country adventure, so I came prepared." He pointed to a motorcycle with a sidecar parked in front of the store.
"Helmets?" Doyeon asked.
"Of course!" he said, pulling three helmets out of the sidecar, handing one to Sei, tossing one to Doyeon, and putting on the third. "Doyeon, you ride in the sidecar. Sei, you ride behind me. Be sure to hold on tight!" He winked at her.
"Just so you know," Doyeon said as she climbed into the sidecar, "she has a girlfriend."
Minjae put on an exaggerated sad face and mimed his heart breaking. "Why are all the good ones either married or gay?" Then his irrepressible smile broke out again. "Oh well. I'll flirt with you anyway - it's good to stay in practice."
Doyeon laughed. "Plus you don't know how not to flirt."
Minjae joined in her laugher. "You know me too well, Kim Doyeon," he said. He climbed on the bike, then motioned for Sei to climb on behind him.
Sei looked at the motorcycle fearfully. She'd never been on a motorcycle before and, what's more, had never wanted to. But apparently she was going to be on one now. Moving carefully and tentatively, she climbed on the bike behind Minjae. He showed her where to put her feet so she didn't burn her legs on the hot engine.
"Now hold on tight around my waist," Minjae said. When she didn't move right away, he said "That's not flirting, that's safety." When Sei had wrapped her arms around him and was holding on tight, he hit the throttle at the same time as he said "Well, ninety percent safety!"
The motorcycle jumped forward, totally unlike anything she had ever experienced. It took her breath away, and the excitement of flying through the world so quickly, unprotected by any walls, was amazing to her. She was disappointed when they stopped outside a barn after just a few minutes.
Sei climbed off the motorcycle, then Minjae dismounted while Doyeon was climbing out of the sidecar.
"Leave the helmets in the sidecar and wait here," Minjae said. "I'll go tell my grandmother you're here."
"So," Sei said to Doyeon once Minjae was out of sight, "a real country adventure?"
Doyeon nodded. "I thought you'd enjoy something out of the ordinary."
Sei looked around. "This definitely qualifies."
"Oh, this is just the beginning," Doyeon said.
Just then the barn doors opened and Minjae came out, leading three horses.
"We're going horseback riding?" Sei asked.
Doyeon would have thought it was impossible for someone to look excited and terrified at the same time, but somehow Sei managed to pull it off.
"Doyeon tells me you've never been horseback riding," Minjae said to Sei as he brought the horses up to them.
"Never," Sei said. She looked nervously at the horses - they looked bigger in person than they did when she saw them on TV and in movies.
"Not a problem," Minjae said, his smile never leaving his face. "This is your horse. Her name is Cinnamon. She's a good girl, and with her help we'll have you riding in no time at all." He showed Sei how to get into the saddle, which she managed to do with no problems at all.
Doyeon was already on her horse by this time, so Minjae mounted up and led them away from the barn. After a few minutes the trail they were on led them into the forest, and soon after that the trail began sloping upward as they climbed a series of progressively taller hills. Doyeon looked over at Sei and saw that the look of trepidation that she'd had at the start of the ride had turned into a smile. Sei looked happier than Doyeon had seen her in days. After a couple of hours, they came to a clearing on the top of a hill. Sei looked down the hill and saw the barn in the distance. It looked like a toy building from up here!
"Okay ladies," Minjae said, "you've got one more task before you get lunch."
"What's that?" Doyeon asked.
"Ride to the end of the clearing at back," Minjae said, pointing the direction. "In the middle of the clearing is a fallen tree. I want you to jump over it twice: Once on your way down and once on your way back."
Doyeon immediately kicked her horse into a run and headed down to the end of the clearing, jumping the obstacle easily. Sei tried to follow her, but as she approached the fallen tree, she became uncertain of her ability to ride Cinnamon through the jump, so she pulled the reins to the side, bringing Cinnamon to a stop just before the jump. She rode back to the beginning and tried again, with the same result, then tried again twice more, each time with the same result. After Sei's fourth unsuccessful attempt, Minjae waved for her to come over by him.
"The log looks pretty big, doesn't it?" he asked.
Sei nodded.
"That's because you're thinking about it wrong," he said. "Don't look at the log from your point of view. Look at it from Cinnamon. The log barely comes up to her knees. She jumps much, much bigger things than this on a regular basis. Trust that she knows how to do this and that she doesn't want to fall down any more than you down and she'll carry you over it, no problem."
Sei nodded, not trusting her voice. She started Cinnamon running toward the log again, and this time she resisted her instinct to stop her. This time Cinnamon leaped in the air and they cleared the log easily. Sei found herself smiling. The feeling of flying when when Cinnamon had jumped over the log was such a freeing feeling. As she rode up to Doyeon at the end of the clearing, Doyeon applauded for her.
"I know you could do it!" Doyeon said.
"Well, I didn't know," Sei said. "But now I do!" She laughed.
"Race you back!" Doyeon yelled, kicking her horse into a gallop.
"Come on, Cinnamon! We can do this!" Sei yelled as she kicked Cinnamon to start her running. She leaned over Cinnamon's neck, encouraging her to run faster. When they reached the log, Cinnamon cleared it again and kept running on the other side. They didn't quite manage to catch Doyeon, but Sei didn't care. She felt freer and more powerful than she ever had before.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Yoojung woke up with Suyeon calling her name. She tried to roll over and ignore her, but Suyeon persisted.
"What?" Yoojung asked as she sat up. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong," Suyeon said. "What would make you think anything is wrong?"
"Because you're waking me up on a day off," Yoojung said. "You know I like to sleep in on days off and so you wouldn't wake me up unless there was something wrong."
"Well as it happens, Miss Know-It-All, there isn't anything wrong," Suyeon said with a smile. "It's just that Lucy and I have planned a special surprise for you today, and if you sleep in you'll miss it."
"A surprise?" Yoojung asked skeptically.
Suyeon nodded. "Come on," she said, grabbing Yoojung's hand and pulling her out of her. "Lucy's made breakfast for us, so we've got to eat and get going."
"Where are we going?" Yoojung asked as she stumbled along behind Suyeon into the kitchen, where Lucy had cooked street toast for each of them.
"If we told you, it wouldn't be a surprise, now would it?" Lucy asked, sitting down and gesturing for Yoojung to sit down next to her.
Conceding the point, Yoojung sat down and started eating.
After they finished eating, during which Lucy and Suyeon kept prodding Yoojung to eat faster any time she slacked off, Yoojung rushed to get dressed, after which they went downstairs and Suyeon called a cab with her phone. Once they got in the cab, Suyeon handed the driver a card with their destination on it.
"Oh, you're going to have fun," the driver said after reading the card.
"Don't say anything about it," Suyeon said. "She's never been and we want it to be a surprise. Smiling, the driver mimed locking his lips together, then put the car into drive and they were on their way.
After about an hour and a half, they reached their destination. The cab let them out and then drove off. Yoojung looked around. They were an empty parking lot, in front of a wooden fence that seemed to stretch forever in each direction. Finally, noticed the sign over the gate.
"Race track?" Yoojung asked. "What are we going to do here? In case you've forgotten, I don't have my license and neither does Lucy."
"Then it's a good thing we don't need them," Lucy said, leading the way to the gate.
"What?" Yoojung asked, incredulous.
"As long as you're driving mini cars on a track, you don't need a license," Suyeon said.
Lucy knocked on the gate, which was opened by a young man in a grease-stained coverall. "You Suyeon?" he asked.
"No, I am," Suyeon said.
He looked around. "When's the rest of your group getting here?"
"This is all of us," Suyeon said. "Just us three."
He looked dubious. "Usually a group is about a dozen people," he said. "You don't get a discount because there's just three of you."
"I know," Suyeon said. "Mr. Kang told me that yesterday when I reserved the track."
The young man shrugged. "It's your money, I guess," he said. He beckoned them through the gate, closed the gate behind them, and started walking down the track. "I'm Woo-jin. Follow me," he said.
They walked about 100 yards down the track, where the mini cars were parked on the grass next to the track. "Wait right there," he said. They watched as he drove three cars off the grass onto the track, taking care that they were all lined up parallel with their front bumpers even. As he got out of the third car, he looked over at Suyeon. "I suppose I should have asked this before I moved the cars: Mr. Kang said you wanted automatic transmissions. That right?"
Suyeon nodded. "That's right," she said. "None of us know how to drive a stick, and today we just want to zoom around the track for a while."
He nodded. "Okay then, come on over and pick your cars." Once they had picked their cars, he went down the row, putting a helmet on them, making sure their safety harness was fastened correctly, and orienting them to the controls. Once he finished this, he moved off to the inner edge of the track. "Since you didn't request race timing, you're free to go as soon as I'm out of the way," he called out to them. "If you see me waving the red flag, stop your car here, because it means either you need gas or your time's up. Don't hit each other, try to stay on the track, and have fun!" He waved at them and then backed up and sat down in a lawn chair.
Lucy was the first to hit the gas. Her car's wheels chirped a little at first but soon regained traction and she was headed down the track. "Catch me if you can!" she called into the radio microphone built into her helmet.
Suyeon started forward at a more sedate pace, then stopped when she noticed that Yoojung hadn't moved yet. "Come on, Udon!" she called. "Are you gonna let the maknae out-drive you?"
"Are you sure this is safe?" Yoojung asked, an unusual tremor in her voice.
"After what I went through with the wreck, do you think I'd be doing this if it wasn't safe?" Suyeon asked. "They let kids as young as ten drive these things! Now put your foot on the gas and let's try to catch Lucy!"
Suyeon waited anxiously as she didn't hear anything from Yoojung for several seconds, but then she did hear something: The roar of Yoojung's engine as she felt past her. Then she heard Yoojung's voice come through the radio. "You coming?" Smiling, Suyeon stomped on the gas and roared off to try to catch her members, Yoojung's laughter ringing in her ears.
They drove for several hours. Twice Woo-jin waved the flag for them to stop for him to refuel the cars with enormous plastic gas cans, then the third time he stopped them, he said their time was over. They shut off the cars and climbed out, laughing as they all stumbled from having been in the car for so long.
"Thanks for not running into anything," Woo-jin said, his voice the friendliest it had been all day. "Not that you could hurt the cars, but it makes more work for me to have to hammer out the dents." He paused for a moment. "You got someone coming to pick you up?"
Suyeon nodded. "I arranged that with the cab driver this morning."
"Well, then, have a nice evening, and come back whenever you want," he said, smiling at Suyeon as he led them back to the gate. Their cab pulled up just as they stepped out into the parking lot.
"Looks like you planned things perfectly," Woo-jin said, waving good-bye to them as they climbed into the taxi.
Suyeon was surprised to see it was the same driver as they'd had that morning. "I called in a favor with dispatch to be certain I was the one sent to pick you up," he said. "Dispatch said you wanted to go to Lee's American. That right?" Upon Suyeon confirming that it was, he said "I hope you don't mind, I wanted to hear what you thought of the track."
"It was amazing!" Yoojung exclaimed. She started telling the driver all about their experiences with the race cars, narrating every twist and turn of each lap, talking nonstop the entire trip from the racetrack to Lee's American. Lucy and Yoojung got out while Suyeon stayed behind to pay the driver.
"Your friend's feeling much better this afternoon than she was this morning, isn't she?" he asked as he waited for Suyeon's card to be processed. Seeing the surprised look on Suyeon's face, he chuckled and said "Driving a cab as long as I have, you learn a thing or two about watching people. Whatever was troubling your friend this morning, she looks like she's doing much better now. Looks like a day at the track was just what she needed."
"Apparently so," Suyeon said with a smile as she punched the keys to pay the driver an extra-large tip. She then told him good-bye, wished him a nice evening, and got out to join the rest of her members.
Once they had been seated in one of the big booths at the back of Lee's American, Yoojung and Sei started telling each other about their experiences of the day while Suyeon, Doyeon, and Lucy sat back and enjoyed seeing their members back to their usual selves. Sei and Yoojung didn't even stop talking when the waitress came to take their orders, so Suyeon ordered for everybody. "Same thing for everyone," she said. "Hash browns, scattered, smothered, covered, chunked, diced, and peppered. Plus beers all around."
"You got it," the waitress said, making a note on her pad, then tucking it in her apron pocket and heading for the kitchen.
"So, you wanna tell me what I'm going to be eating?" Lucy asked Suyeon. "Scattered diced chunks what?" She looked dubious at the prospect.
Suyeon explained the wonders of loaded hash browns to Lucy as Sei and Yoojung continued their excited recitations.
After just a few minutes, the waitress brought their meals and their beer.
"What's this?" Sei asked, looking in surprise at the plate that had been placed in front of her. "I didn't order anything? And what even is this?"
"You were busy talking, so Suyeon ordered for all of us," Lucy said, and then she explained the meal to Sei.
"Well, it looks delicious," Sei said. "After today, I'm so hungry I could eat a horse. Not an actual horse," she hastily added, "because horses are awesome, but something as big as a horse." She took a bite of her hash browns and made a face that was practically orgasmic. "There are amazing, Suyeon!" she said. "Where did you learn about these?"
"Yoojung taught me," Suyeon said.
"Thank you, Yoojung!" Sei said before shoveling another huge bite of hash browns into her mouth.
There was quiet for a while as they all concentrated on eating, but eventually, as she neared the end of her hashbrowns, Yoojung looked at Suyeon and asked "So, are you going to tell me what this day was all about?"
"After recent events, you and Sei both seemed to be in down moods and stuck in a rut," Suyeon said, "so we came up with these day trips to shake you up and give you a positive experience."
"'Recent events'," Yoojung said quietly. Suddently, a look of recognition came over her face. "You mean Kim Go-Eun," she said.
Suyeon nodded. "I hadn't wanted to say her name for fear of undoing all the good we'd done today, but yeah. Her."
Yoojung shook her head. "All I feel for her now is contempt. I just wish there was something we could do to stop her - reveal her wrongdoing."
"Can't be done," Doyeon said. "She's got some sort of industry power in her pocket. People have tried taking her down before and it's never gone well for them."
"Well, at least we can keep our eyes open and try to stop her when we can," Yoojung said.
As their seniors got involved in a conversation about what they could or couldn't do to try to thwart Kim Go-Eun, Lucy reached over and took Sei's hand. "It's so good to see you smile," she said. "I hadn't seen it for a while."
Sei smiled at Lucy. "I guess I hadn't realized just how much Yoojung and Doyeon's situation had affected me," she said. "Thanks for standing by me and helping snap me out of it."
Lucy leaned over and gave Sei and quick hug. "If having to watch all of Star Trek with you didn't drive me away, do you really think a round of depression will?"
Sei pretended to be scandalized. "You mean you didn't like Star Trek?"
"Some of it wasn't too bad," Lucy conceded. "I liked Counselor Troi and Captain Cisco. Oh, and Worf! He was funny!"
"Funny?" Sei asked. "Worf was the embodiment of Klingon honor and culture!"
"Exactly!" Lucy said. "He was on a spaceship, but there he was stomping around with that ridiculous sword!" She paused for a moment. "But I'd watch it all again if that's what it took to make you happy."
Sei smiled up at Lucy, then looked down at the table to try to hide the tears that were welling up in her eyes. "I love you so much," she said quietly - but not so quietly that Lucy didn't hear her.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Suyeon pressed down on the accelerator, speeding up as she merged onto the freeway.
"Thanks for bringing me to this appointment," Sei said. "It would take me two buses to get there, which I just really didn't want to do today."
"Understandable," Suyeon said, changing lanes, her fear of driving apparently firmly in the past. "I wouldn't want to take a bus all the way out here either."
Sei leaned back in her seat. "Why is Fantagio sending us to this hair salon?" she asked. "Why can't we just go to Stylist-nim."
"Cost-cutting," Suyeon said grimly. "Apparently we're going to have Stylist-nim during comebacks, but in between we're to go to this place."
"Cost-cutting," Sei grumbled. "But they spend money hand over first on Astro. And with the money they're not spending on HelloVenus anymore, it seems like they could afford to start promoting us properly."
"The Hellovenus money is going to developing a new girl group," Suyeon said.
Sei sat forward. "A new girl group?" she exclaimed indignantly. "When they can't seem to properly manage the one they've got?"
"Rookies are cheaper, so that means more profit for the company," Suyeon said. "We've reached the point in our careers that they have to actually give us money from time to time. Which reminds me - it's still two years off, but it's not too early to start thinking about whether or not we want to re-sign with Fantagio."
Sei thought for a moment. "I'd like to go somewhere else," she said. "I feel like we could have done so much more if we had had a company that promoted us properly."
Suyeon nodded. "I kind of feel the same way," she said. "The big problem with that is whether or not Fantagio would be willing to sell the Weki Meki name trademarks to the new company."
"Yeah, that's a problem," Sei agreed. "Plus we have to worry about Yoojung and Doyeon."
Suyeon was so startled she almost missed the exit. Once she'd made a hasty turn onto the exit ramp, she asked "What about Yoojung and Doyeon?"
"Well," Sei said, obviously taking care to choose her words carefully, "Yoojung had a lot of success with her new single, and Doyeon's been doing well at acting. I could imagine them wanting to leave the group and make a go of that."
Suyeon shook her head. "I don't think they'd do that," she said, but Sei could tell she didn't entirely believe what she was saying.
They rode the last few blocks to the salon in silence. "So, what are they doing to your hair?" Suyeon asked.
Sei shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine," she said sourly. "Just like Stylist-nim, the new stylist wouldn't tell me."
"Typical," Suyeon said as she pulled into a parking space.
"Are you going in with me?" Sei asked.
Suyeon looked around. This salon was the only business open that she could see. "I had been planning to go to a coffee shop nearby and wait there for you, but apparently that's not happening, so I guess I am."
Suyeon sat in the waiting area while Sei was taken back to the chair. After 30 minutes had passed without Sei returning, Suyeon said to herself "I guess they're doing a dye job on her." When another half hour had passed and still no Sei, Suyeon began to get impatient. She was tired of all the games on her phone and she hadn't brought anything to read, so the only thing left to do to entertain herself was to look at all the haircare products on the shelves in the waiting room, but since one shampoo looks pretty much the same as another, this didn't keep her attention for very long. Suyeon was on the verge of going into the back to ask how much longer it would be when Sei came out.
Sei was obviously on the verge of tears. "Please, let's just go," she said as she stormed by Suyeon. Suyeon looked over at the stylist, who was peeking out from the back room, then bowed farewell and disappeared.
Suyeon turned and followed Sei out of the salon. She was concerned - storming out like this wasn't usual for Sei. As she walked over to the car, Suyeon quickly looked at Sei's hair to see if she could spot the problem. The stylist had overdyed the previously dyed parts of Sei's hair to match her natural hair color. Then she had given Sei a jelly perm; her hair was handing loose in messy curls. Suyeon unlocked the car and they both got in.
As they were driving off, Suyeon said "Okay, your hair looks fine to me, so I'm going to need you to tell me what's wrong."
"What's wrong?" Sei asked. "What's wrong? I'm the member who's known for being concerned about the environment, so the stylist decides to give me a hippie perm! It's lazy and thoughtless. Even if she's not deliberately trying to make fun of me, that's what she's done! I don't know-"
But Suyeon wasn't going to find out what Sei didn't know, because the car's screen lit up, showing a call from Manager-nim.
"Answer," Suyeon said.
"Suyeon!" Manager-nim's voice came out of the car's speakers; she was obviously upset. "I just got off the phone with Stylist Park. She was very upset because Sei didn't seem to be happy with her hair. What happened?"
Sei opened her mouth to speak, but Suyeon held up her hand to shush her.
"Stylist Park dyed Sei's hair back to her natural color, then gave her a jelly perm. Sei thinks that having this hairstyle on top of being known for her environmental concerns, it makes her look like a stereotype."
"She's exactly right," Manager-nim snapped. "Let me go. I've got to try to fix this. There's got to be somewhere else we can save the money. . ." And with that, Manager-nim hung up.
Sei sniffled, wiping away a tear. "I hope Manager-nim can fix this," she said. "I don't want the Ki-lings to see me like this."
"The Ki-lings would love you no matter what your hair looked like," Suyeon said. "More to the point, Manager-nim has never let us down, if she says she's going to fix this, I believe-"
The phone rang, Manager-nim calling back. "Answer." Suyeon said.
"Suyeon," Manager-nim said, "do you have a hat or a hoodie or something in your car?"
"Yes," Suyeon said hesitantly, not sure where Manager-nim was going with this.
"Take Sei straight to the main Fantagio Building. When you get there, take her straight to Stylist-nim. And don't let anyone see her hair like this."
"What about the money?" Suyeon asked.
"Let me worry about the money," Manager-nim said. "You just worry about getting ready for your next comeback."
"You got it," Suyeon said, "and thank you."
"Don't mention it," Manager-nim said. "I screwed this up by sending you to Stylist Park, so fixing it is the least I could do." And she hung up.
Suyeon glanced over and saw that Sei had already pulled a hoodie and a hat out of the back seat and her hair was not totally covered.
"You feel better now?" Suyeon asked.
"Kind of," Sei said. "But I'll really feel better once I talk to Stylist-nim."
Suyeon was sitting in the hall outside Stylist-nim's room, waiting for Stylist-nim to get done with Sei. "As much waiting for her to get her hair done as I'm having to do today," Suyeon said to herself, "her hair better look amazing."
Just then Suyeon's phone rang - Lucy.
"Where are you?" Lucy asked. "You've been gone forever and Sei answering her phone? She and I were supposed to go out to dinner tonight."
"You should start thinking about getting delivery instead," Suyeon said. "I don't know how long we're going to be, and I don't know if she's going to want to go out in public when this is done."
"Why wouldn't she want to go out in public?" Lucy asked, obviously both confused and concerned. "Is something wrong you're not telling me about?"
"We went to the new stylist," Suyeon said, "and it was kind of a disaster, so Manager-nim had me bring Sei to Stylist-nim. Hopefully Stylist-nim can fix this - I'm sure she can, but I don't know what she's going to do."
"So we're all going to be seeing Stylist-nim after all?" Lucy asked.
"Apparently," Suyeon said. "Manager-nim agreed with Sei's assessment that Stylist Park's choices were bad."
"That's some comfort," Lucy said. "I just hope Sei's hair turns out okay."
Just then Stylist-nim's door opened a little and Stylist-nim stuck her head out. "Cover your eyes!" she commanded Suyeon.
"Talk to you later, Lucy," Suyeon said before hanging up the phone and covering her eyes.
She heard a commotion in front of her, then Stylist-nim told her to open her eyes. Suyeon did, and when she saw Sei her jaw dropped and she let out a squeal of excitement. Stylist-nim had somehow managed to undo the jelly perm and now Sei's hair was lying sleek and straight and silky. On top of that, she had managed to mix up a black dye that was even darker and glossier than Sei's natural hair. And then she had topped the whole thing off by giving Sei a princess cut. She looked so chic and fashionable that Rina was going to have a fight on her hands to hold onto her title as the fashionplate of Weki Meki.
"Do you like?" Sei asked excitedly.
"Like it? I love it!" Suyeon responded, before turning to Stylist-nim and saying "Thank you! You did a miracle here!"
"Oh it was nothing," Stylist-nim said, but Suyeon could tell she was pleased by the compliment. "I'll call your manager and tell her to just send all you girls straight to me, rather than sending you to someone else and then having to call me in to fix their mistakes."
Sei turned and hugged Stylist-nim. "Thank you so much!" she said. "I never imagined I could look like this!"
Stylist-nim awkwardly patted Sei on the back, obviously unused to being hugged. When Sei released Stylist-nim, she turned to Suyeon. "Can we go back to the dorm now?" she asked. "I want Lucy to see my hair."
"We can go in just a moment," Suyeon said. "I've got to make a quick phone call." She pulled out her phone and called Lucy back. "Forget what i said about ordering delivery," Suyeon said. "Take Sei out to dinner, and be sure to take her someplace that she'll be seen and hopefully photographed."
"Isn't it Doyeon's job to be the face of Weki Meki?" Sei asked as they got into the car.
"Not today," Suyeon said. "Today it's you."
Sei smiled. "I just hope Lucy likes it."
"If she doesn't, she needs to turn in her lesbian card and I'll take you out to dinner," Suyeon said emphatically.
"But. . ." Sei was confused. "You're straight!"
"That's my point," Suyeon said. "That's the effect you're having right now."
Sei smiled as she pulled a pair of movie-star sunglasses out of her purse and put them on. "Then let's get going," she said.
Suyeon chuckled softly as she put the car in drive.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I don't know for certain that this story is totally finished, but right now it's at a stopping place and I don't have any ideas of where to take it next, so I'm putting it on hiatus for a while.