Lua sat on her bed looking out the window. After several minutes of staring out at the empty streets around the dorm, she sighed and got up to go get a glass of water. As she stepped into the kitchen, she was ambushed by Rina with a hug.

"Hey there!" Rina said. "I was wondering if you were ever going to come out of your room." That was one of the conditions of their relationship: Someone who was in their bedroom couldn't be bothered. Especially since they couldn't leave the dorm, they needed to each have a place where they could get away from the other one if they needed to.

"Oh, yeah. I'm actually just out to get some water, then I was headed back to my room," Lua mumbled.

"That's no fun!" Rina protested, squeezing Lua tighter. "Come play with me!"

Lua shook her head. "I can't right now," she said quietly. "Just. . . lotta stuff going on in my mind, you know?"

"And you'd rather be alone with your mind stuffs than spend time with me?" Rina asked.

"Not really," Lua said. "That's sort of the problem."

"I'm not seeing the problem," Rina said, craning her head around to look into Lua's eyes. "If I want to spend time with you, and you want to spend time with me, where's the problem?"

Lua disengaged herelf from Rina's arms and got herself a glass of water. After she took a couple of sips, she looked at Rina and shook her head sadly. "Remember when we started all this, you said that the reason you picked me was because you know I wouldn't fall in love with you? Well, you were wrong. That's where I've been all morning - trying to talk myself out of loving you. But I can't do it. I'm sorry. I-" She sniffled and blinked back tears. "I've got to go." 

Before Rina was able to realize what Lua had said, Lua had rushed past her and shut herself in her room again. She was still standing there when Elly came into the kitchen to get some lunch.

"Hey Rina," Elly said casually as she put on a pot of water to make ramen. Not getting an answer, she turned and looked at Rina. Rina was just standing in the kitchen, one arm across her body holding her other arm, staring off into the distance.

"Rina!" Elly called out again. "Rina!" She waved her hand in front of Rina's face. Finally, Rina snapped out of it and noticed that Elly was in the room with her.

"Oh! Hi unnie! When did you get here?" Rina asked, her voice all forced casualness.

"A couple of minutes ago," Elly said, "and you were standing here staring at the wall. What's wrong? Are you feeling okay?"

Rina nodded. "Oh, yeah. I'm fine. Just got lost in my thoughts, you know?"

Elly kept silent and stirred her ramen. She wouldn't say that Rina was shallow - not out loud, at any rate - but she seriously doubted Rina had ever had a thought deep enough to get lost in. It was the primary factor behind the two of them splitting up - Elly couldn't date someone she couldn't have a conversation with, no matter how good the other aspects of the relationship were. But seeing that Rina looked seriously distressed, she put aside any of the snarky comebacks that readily sprang to mind and instead asked "You want to talk about it?"

Rina shook her head. "Just. . . girl trouble, you know. I'll figure it out."

Elly nodded, thinking silently for a moment as she poured her ramen into a bowl and carefully carried it to the table. "You sure you don't want to talk about it?" She grabbed a pair of chopsticks and sat down at the table, looking up at Rina. She took a bite of her ramen, chewed and swallowed, then said "I've noticed you and Lua have been all over each other again the last few days. What's wrong? Trouble in paradise?"

Rina shook her head, then nodded, then finally said "I don't even know. It's weird. You sure you want to hear about it?"

Elly idly stirred her ramen with her chopsticks. "If I wasn't willing to list to you talk about your problems, whatever they are, I wouldn't have asked. Twice. Now have a seat and tell me all about it. I can't guarantee I'll have any answers, but maybe you'll feel better after talking it out."

Rina stepped forward and stood behind the chair opposite Elly, her hands on the back of the chair. "Are you sure about that? I mean, after our history together. . . " She trailed off.

"You mean because I'm your ex-girlfriend," Elly said as she took another bite of ramen. Once she'd chewed and swallowed, she said "That makes me perfect for this. Lua and I know you the best of anyone in the band, and since obviously you can't talk to her about this, I'm the logical candidate."

Nodding, Rina pulled the chair out and sat down. After taking a deep breath, she had a couple of false starts before deciding how she wanted to begin. "I. . . that is, Lua. . . anyway, you were right: Lua and I are back together. It's been nice. But it was supposed to just be a bit of entertainment during the quarantine, you know? I mean, we talked a lot beforehand and we both agreed we wouldn't fall in love, and that this was just for the duration of the quarantine, and. . . And then this morning Lua came in here and told me that she'd fallen in love with me again, then she went and shut herself in her room so I can't talk to her."

Elly looked confused. "Why can't you go talk to her?"

Rina shook her head. "That was one of our rules - bedrooms are off limits unless we specifically invite the other one in."

Elly picked up her bowl and drank the last of her ramen broth. "But if she's breaking one rule by falling in love, why shouldn't you break another rule by going into her room to talk to her?"

"I don't know," Rina said. "It's just - I don't know what to say or how to say it."

Elly set her bowl down. "Because you're in love with her too," she said quietly.

"I didn't say that!" Rina said quickly.

"You don't have to," Elly said. I still remember when you and Lua broke up before - you both still loved each other, but you were each too proud to be the one to admit you were wrong and try to start the process of getting you back together. I think - whether you'll admit it or not - you were hoping something like this would happen when you and Lua started things up again, but now that it's happened, you don't know what to do, especially since Lua is going to use the fact that she fell in love with you as a reason to break up with you."

Rina looked stricken. "You really think she is?"

Elly nodded. "If she thinks she broke the rules you two had set up, she'll insist on it. She'll think she's a horrible person for breaking the rules and that she's got to break things off before they get any worse."  

Rina sat silently for a moment, before asking "So what do I do now?"

Elly shook her head. "Oh no. I said I'd listen to your problems. I never said I'd solve them. If I give you a suggestion and you try it, you'll blame me if things go wrong. I'm perfectly willing to listen to you and to give you my view of the situation, but I'm not about to start offering advice."

Rina nodded. "I guess that's fair. To be honest, I don't know if I'd take your advice anyway - I never was very good at listening."

"What I will say," Elly said, as she got up and put her bowl in the sink, "is that you could talk to me about this all day and night, if I'd let you, and that wouldn't solve your problem."

Rina sat quiety long after Elly had left the room. Finally she got up and headed for Lua's room. She stood outside the door, raised her hand to knock, and froze. She was so preoccupied that she didn't hear Lucy come up the hall behind her.

"Why doesn't she knock?" Lucy said, in an uncanny imitation of Olaf from Frozen. "Do you think she knows how to knock?"

Rina stood there silently for a moment before she broke down laughing. "Hi Lucy!" she said. "What are you up to? Besides making fun of me."

"I wasn't making fun," Lucy said, "but you were posed just like in the movie. It was too good to pass up."

Just then the door opened. Lua had already taken a step out of the room before she noticed Rina and Lucy standing there. "Oh! Hi! What are you two doing?"

"She doesn't know how to knock," Lucy said with a barely suppressed laugh as she went down the hall toward the common room, leaving Rina and Lua standing in the hall.

Rina rolled her eyes. "Maknaes. Am I right?"

"Less talking! More cooking!" Yoojung called out from the within the room.

"Oh. . . um. . . yeah. I was on my way to fix dinner. You want to come with me? We can talk while I cook." Lua looked expectantly at Rina.

Rina nodded. "Sure. Let's go."

Rina and Lua walked quietly into the kitchen. Lua started gathering her ingredients while Rina stood in the center of the room, awkwardly clasping and unclasping her hands. After a couple of minutes, Lua turned to face Rina. "I'm really sorry about this," she said. "On the other hand, we were going to break up anyway when the quarantine ended. We're just getting a jump on things."

"Who said we're breaking up?" Rina asked.

Lua sighed. "You said it yourself at the start of this - this is the equivalent of a summer fling. If I've fallen for you this hard now, it'd be even harder to split up a several weeks from now, so it's better if we break it off now."

"But," Rina said, "what if I've fallen for you too?"

"Then that's all the more reason to break it off now," Lua said. "It's only gonna get harder the longer we wait." She turned back toward the counter and started chopping vegetables.

"What if I don't want to break it off?" Rina asked.

Lua put down her knife and stood silently for a long moment. Finally she turned around. "What are you saying?" she asked, the redness of her eyes more apparent.

Rina took a step toward her. "What if we try to make a go of it, for real."

Lua shook her head. "We've tried that already. We practically tore each other apart. Remember?"

Rina nodded. "I remember. But I'm still willing to try. Maybe this time will be different."

Lua look deep into her eyes and took a hesitant step toward her. "And maybe it won't."

Rina smiled at her. "There's only one way to find out."