Three years ago

She was left with no choice.

The other girls had literally pulled her out of her bedroom, coercing her to go somewhere other than the bathroom, the kitchen, and the living room. As much as she detested this, the girls were only trying to help. She needed the fresh air.

And maybe a nice warm shower.

Momo had kept herself on lock since the end of their promotions. She had isolated herself emotionally from everyone—especially that member whose name began with M and was frequently paired with another name that began with B. It was sad and pathetic, she knew. But it was something that kept her from pouring her terminal heart out on anyone who caught her in her state.

Everyone was noticing. Their manager hadn’t stopped pressing the members for answers regarding her new unusual demeanor. The girl who once was a laughing, carefree machine became this girl who barely spoke three words and could no longer form an upward curve on her lips. Park Jin Young himself had to call for her and ask if there was anything going on in her life that he should be concerned of.

The members were alarmed by this. And to prevent it from happening again, they staged an intervention which was considerably successful.

Momo was now dressed and had arrived at this party. Half an hour had gone by and she hadn’t demanded to be driven home.

“Hey,” Jungyeon handed her a glass of champagne. “Take this.”

Momo downed the entire drink in one swig. “Thanks,” she said in a tedious tone.

All of them were at this penthouse in the greater area of Seoul. There were plenty of familiar faces in the crowd, most of whom they had worked with in variety shows and music shows. It was actually a party hosted by their senior, Amber of f(x). There was no occasion for it but only a gathering of her closest friends, one of which was Jungyeon.

Momo played along well as instructed by her best friend. She mingled with the people she had met before, laughed at their jokes. Surprisingly, she had felt better. Some nights she would think about her old self, what she was before she had her heart broke. At last, she was there again. She had never felt lighter in years.

“Doing alright?” Nayeon came to check on her by the corner, beside this avante garde statue of a llama.

The music had made her feel much looser. Her limbs were beginning to flow with the sounds. “Yeah,” she answered.

“Great to see you like this, Moguri.”

Nayeon was one of the members truly worried over her. Even though the room Momo shared with Jungyeon was only large enough for the two, Nayeon would sleep on the floor until Momo would fall asleep. She never said it directly to her but Nayeon couldn’t stand seeing the girl lose her glow while those of others were only getting brighter.

“She’s not here isn’t she?” Momo stretched neck. Her sharp vision answered her question only for the older member to confirm.

“No, she isn’t. And you don’t have to know where she is.”

“I know.” Momo’s voice was sinking into a whisper.

“Get over her, Momo. Be happy. You won’t make her less happy with you being like this.”

She pulled the side of her lips to a smile. “I won’t,” she assured Nayeon.

As their topic changed into something that didn’t trigger the recurrence of her despair—something about getting their own apartments like Amber’s—Jungyeon came over and with her was a girl Momo had heard wonders of.

“Hey, you two!” Jungyeon walked over, slightly red over the amounts of alcohol she already had through . “Look who I have here.”

The girl followed Jungyeon from behind, and though the latter was standing in a fair tall height, she towered over her, making her stand out even more to Momo’s eyes.

“It’s Park Chaeyoung! Not Son Chaeyoung, that’s our Chaeyoung. It’s Park Chaeyoung! BLACKPINK’s Rosé! Rosie!” The tipsy Jungyeon introduced.

“Hey, what’s up?” Rosie shyly waved at her seniors of one year. “Hey, unnie.”

Nayeon hugged her. “Are you here alone? Where’s Jisoo, Jennie, and Lisa?”

“Well,” Rosie shrugged. “Jisoo unnie has a schedule tonight. Lisa is home in Bangkok for