Loila’s POV

“Hey Dae, what should I pack?” I asked into the phone as I held up the purple beanie Thunder had brought me the previous year. I was in Dae’s room again, after Dad had driven me home after I slept over at Rod’s house the day before. I was sitting on the floor, surrounded by a mountain of clothes. Cloud was staring accusingly at me on top of the pile.

“I don’t know. How long are you going?” I kicked the bear off the pile, as though I was trying to protect his innocent ears.

“Um… Did I forget to mention that I probably won’t be coming back?” My voice was high pitch and full of fake cheerfulness. There was silence. For a brief moment I thought that the phone call had ended, until Dae started screeching.

“WHAT!?” I had to pull the phone away from my ear. “I’m gone for less than a month and you’re already leaving? How am I supposed to go to Australia on my own?”

“It’s a really good opportunity for me. Rod owns his own restaurant and Dad will be coming with me, I get to help cook in an actual restaurant!”

“Lola, don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for you, but what about everyone else?”

“They’re coming with me…” I stalled.

“Not your family, you know who I mean- Can you not tug so hard?” Dae yelled at someone on the other side of the phone. “Sorry, I’m getting ready for a photo shoot.”

“That explains the yelling. I’m sure MBLAQ will be fine, they’ve been really busy lately with their new CD and all.”

“You can’t leave without saying goodbye.”

“What? You’re such a hypocrite, you did exactly that.”

“At least write a note or something, and you have to tell my family, Bae will be devastated. He says that he’s over you but he talks about you all the time. It’s quite annoying; I know all of it anyway.”

“Besides, MBLAQ will be better off without me.”

“Let me guess, you had another fight with Mir, didn’t you?” I was a little ashamed at how obvious it was, Dae hasn’t even been in the country and she can tell.

“Mir said that cooking was useless…”

“Oh, Lola, I know he didn’t mean it.” Dae said in a calm voice.

“I’m sure he didn’t mean it, but it doesn’t mean I can forgive him. I don’t get him, everything was going perfectly fine with Thunder, Mir and I and Mir had to ruin it.”

“Cheondung was there to? Oh dear, no wonder why…” Dae trailed off.

“I’m so confused!” I snapped. “How do you deal with boys?”

“Ha! Joon deals with me, not the other way round. I’m quite a handful. I can’t wait to tell him that I’ve moved hotels, of course I’ll tell him after he tries to visit!” Dae laughed.

“I don’t really have any other reason to stay in Korea. Kimchi is here but I want to start fresh in Australia.”

“You’ve already made up your mind, right?”

“Yeah. So tell me, Miss Model, what should I pack?”

“I’m not helping you unless you say goodbye to MBLAQ first.”

“Knock, knock!” I called as I walked into the dance studio.

“Sky!” MBLAQ shouted.

“Loila!”

“What are you doing here?” Thunder asked.

“I just wanted to see how you were doing. What are you dancing to?”

“We’re working on ‘Run’. Do you want to see it so far?” Seungho clicked some buttons on the CD player and they got into their positions.

“Oh! Can I join in?” I clapped my hands in excitement.

“You don’t know the dance!” Mir accused.

“Can you teach it to me?” I attempted Dae’s ‘pleading face’ but failed, which made MBLAQ laugh.

“I’ll teach her.” Thunder walked over.

“I’ll help!” Mir ran over and we created our own dance group, while the rest of MBLAQ practised. “Why do you suddenly want to learn the dance anyway?”

“It looks fun.” I frowned while trying to pick up one of the moves. I actually wanted to have one last fun activity with MBLAQ before I left Korea. I didn’t want them to worry and ruin their performances, which were going to start that night, the night I left. “How do you do that ‘flick’ move?” I asked.

“I’ll show you.”

“No,I’ll show you.” Mir pushed in front of Thunder and I gave a look of sympathy to Thunder. “It’s like this. Loila, are you watching?” 

Mir’s POV

“You better run, run.” The music finished and Loila jumped all over the studio.

“I got to dance with MBLAQ!” She squealed.

“I only taught you one move…” I pointed out, she shrugged and continued squealing. It was so cute that I couldn’t help but join in.

“What do you want to do now?” She asked.

“We have to practice more, we’re performing tonight.” Seungho took a sip of water. G.O tried to snatch it off him but was unsuccessful.

“Oh... I wanted to have fun with MBLAQ today.” Loila sulked.

“I guess it can’t be helped.” Joon shrugged. “You’re always interrupting us from our music.”

“Sorry!” She giggled.

“You don’t look sorry…” G.O pointed out after he successfully grabbed Seungho’s bottle and swallowed a huge mouthful of water.

“Hey!” Seungho glared.

“I need it for my voice.” G.O said matter-of-factly.

“Does water help?” Loila cut in.

“Yeah, you can’t hit the high notes with a dry throat.”

“I didn’t know that, I’m learning so much today!”

“I thought everyone knew that…” Joon grunted as he started to do push-ups. Loila ran over and join him but she struggled to even do one. “That’s weak!” Joon laughed.

“Hey, I’m not a freak like Dae!”

“I’m not a freak!” Joon argued. “Seungho is. Have you seen him play piano?”

“No, not in real life. I’ve seen him play on online though.” Loila sat up and looked at Seungho. “Please?”

“W-what?” Seungho looked at his phone. “Look at the time!”

“No, no! We have a keyboard, you can play on that.” G.O dragged Seungho towards the small keyboard in one corner of the room. “Play.” G.O demanded.

“We have a performance tonight, we should be practising.” Seungho obviously didn’t want to play.

“Come on! You always brag, why is this any different?”

“Fine!” Seungho sat in front of the keyboard and began playing the children’s song ‘Twinkle twinkle’. “Thank you and goodnight!” He called in a theatrical voice after he finished the quick song. G.O began to interrupt when Loila burst out giggling.

“That was awesome!”

“Really?” Seungho lightly dragged his fingers over the keys in embarrassment.

“Yeah, how can you play that?” Loila asked in a serious tone. Everyone except Loila and Seungho sighed.

“Stop showing off!” G.O whined as Seungho played a few more notes. G.O cleared his throat and began signing. Joon, who seemed bored, started doing sit-ups and Cheondung and I stood there, not knowing what to do.

“We need to stop them.” Cheondung whispered in my ear. “They’ve got all of her attention.”

“You’re right. I’ll create a distraction, you grab Loila.” We shook hands and got ready. No one deserved Loila’s full attention, except me. I just needed Cheondung to help me achieve that.