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 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 tab