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 phon