----Chapter Fourteen---- 

The four girls watch with intense interest as the seven boys stand on the stage and move in sync with the music.

It's early in the morning, and they're currently rehearsing for the festival that'll start tomorrow late afternoon, and Blackpink is waiting for their turn to come, which is right after BTS. Since they are next, they have a valid reason for standing close to the stage, and thus watching them, but they're not the only ones. A good number of female idols have gathered on the other side, gawking and whispering behind their hands, eyes glued to the caps-and-sweats wearing males.

Even Lisa next to her keeps mumbling about 'smooth moves' and other incoherent phrases, clearly impressed with their dancing skills.

Chaeyoung wears a blank expression as she stares at the stage, but she can't help glancing in his direction. Wherever he moves on the stage, her eyes follow like he's a magnet she's drawn to.

She can't judge the giggling females, she's practically the same.

"You're drooling," Lisa whispers to her with a snicker.

She tears her eyes away from him to glare at her friend. "I'm not drooling!" she whispers back without conviction.

"I think you want to hop on that stage and rip off all his clothes."

"Oh my god, Lisa!" Chaeyoung whispers-yells, her face burning, but Lisa only laughs in satisfaction at Chaeyoung's red face.

"What, what did I miss?" Jisoo looks from one to the other, curious."Nothing, nothing. Ahh, I really want us to have a choreography like that," Lisa says instead, to distract Jisoo from Chaeyoung's panicking face, her eyes on the boys moving around the stage.

"So it can take me a hundred years to learn it and by then, I'll be in a wheelchair and thus unable to perform...do you want me to die?" Outraged, Jisoo shakes her head violently, then stares at Jennie with an evil glint in her eyes as she says her next words. "I'd rather we become a ballad group."

"What!" On cue, Jennie whips her head at Jisoo's words. "Absolutely not!" she objects violently. "I'm fine with a ballad once in awhile, but not all the time! That's not what we signed up for."

Jisoo can't hold her laughter in at Jennie's complete horror at the thought of Blackpink becoming a ballad group."Yahh." Jennie shakes Jisoo's shoulders in retaliation, which turns the eldest's laugh into something sinister as she swings back and forth under Jennie's handling.

Chaeyoung is so happy that they somehow made up and are back to talking and fooling around with each other. Jennie was asleep by the time she got back to their room yesterday and when she woke up this morning, she was back to her usual self. Mostly. Her smiles seemed a bit forced, her eyes always drifting away, and she chatted less than usual at breakfast. 

Jisoo isn't fooled either, with all the worried looks she sends her when Jennie has her back turned, but she hasn't mentioned her party once and tries her best to make Jennie laugh, which made Lisa join in, obviously. It seems to help a little since Jennie is overall less tensed than yesterday.

Chaeyoung and Lisa share a happy look before turning back to watch the two oldest annoy each other, with satisfied smiles on both their faces.  Seeing them fight had shaken her badly, so it relieves her that their group dynamic is intact, but Jennie is still troubled, and Chaeyoung still worries about whatever hardships she's trying to hide from them.

"One minute."

A staff's voice immediately calms them down and their faces return to their stoic masks.

They finish watching BTS' rehearsal and when they leave the stage, they know their turn is up. They head to the stage and stand in formation, throwing each other looks of encouragement.

As she waits for the song to start, Chaeyoung's eyes suddenly go around the empty 20 000 seats of the stadium, their vacancy widening the appearance of the venue. She hasn't stood yet on a stage venue like this one, so similar to the one at their last concert where it happened. It's a different venue, in a different country, but the sight is the same though the seats weren't empty back then.

The high ceiling, a sea of seats going up higher and higher, the huge screen hanging from the ceiling. It's all the same. She clearly remembers it, her last view of one of the happiest time of her life before she was ripped away from that very same place.  It didn't hit her backstage, maybe because of the anticipation and excitement clouding her past memories, but it all comes back to her now as she stands on the stage.

It's not the same.

It looms in front of her, its height and dimension mocking her, and she stops breathing as her body is thrown back in the past. It's deadly silent now, but echoes of screams and shouts ring in her ears, never completely fading as her past-self moved farther away from the stage. She hears them as clearly as she could back then.

She suddenly feels sick as so many flashes of memories flood her, wave after wave, so strong the world spins around her, past and present melting together. 

The sound of flies buzzing fills her ears and bile starts to rise in . She doesn't know how, but her frozen body obeys her orders to move and she rushes backstage, hand covering . She only has time to crouch down in a remote corner before she empties the contents of her stomach on the ground.

Someone is holding her hair back as she pukes, and she recognizes Lisa's perfume.

Hands on the wall for support, she retches again and again until there's nothing left inside.

"We're ready so if you want, we can go before you, to give her time to get back on her feet." Chaeyoung vaguely hears Irene's voice close by, followed by Jennie's, who's thanking her.

"I think Twice is after Red Velvet. I'll ask if they don't mind rehearsing earlier." Jisoo's voice.

"Okay, that'd be good. Can we go somewhere else? There are too many eyes here. Chaeyoung should have some privacy." Lisa. She wants to say something but she heaves instead.

"Our waiting room is the first one on the left. You can go there." A male voice she can't put a face on but knows she heard before. She feels hands on her, helping her stand up and she's slowly moving.

"Twice agreed to go after Red Velvet, and the technical team is ok with the schedule change too." Jisoo again. She sounds out of breath. "We have about forty-five minutes...Where are we going?"

"BTS's waiting room. They offered since theirs is the closest." BTS?

She misses what's being said next as another vague of nausea overwhelms her. She tries to fight it down and when she finally wins, she's a bit more clear-headed and she must've missed quite some time since she's now sitting on a couch, most of her weight leaning on Lisa.

"Welcome back," the younger girl says when she sees the haze now gone from her eyes.

Jisoo and Jennie are on her other side while all their managers are huddled in the room. Her manager pounces on her the moment she realizes she's back with them.

"She needs some space," Jennie argues.

"I know, but we don't have time."

"We can just do the rehearsal without Chaeng," Jennie counters. She's trying to stay polite, but there's a little impatience dripping in her voice.

"What about the show? Are you going to perform as a trio?" their head manager cuts. He's looking over them sternly. "If she can't do the rehearsal, how is it going to be when the stadium will be full?"

Jennie looks like she wants to argue, but Jisoo puts a warning hand on her knee. "Can we not flaunt our dirty laundry in front of others?"

It's after Jisoo's words that Chaeyoung finally notices all the BTS members, along with some of their staff, on the opposite side of the room. Right, this is their waiting room. Her eyes don't stay long on them, but they all seem uncomfortable at the drama unfolding in front of them.

She'll try to apologize to them later, but right now, she's more worried about Jennie who's losing her cool faster than the Titanic sank.

A clear sign she really has been putting up a front all morning.

"At this point? It's a little too late. I don't want to be insensitive, but we need to know now if you can perform, Chaeyoung. Otherwise, we have