The opera was great. The tickets Fanmu had given them were high up on one side - not great for watching the opera, but good for hearing it, and great for making out without being observed. As the lead soprano's final note died away and the opera came to an end, Suyeon leaned in to give Lucy one more quick kiss, then said "Okay, everybody change partners."

So Suyeon took Hyun-Woo's hand and Lucy took Min-Kyu's and they made their way out of the opera house. As they had expected, there were some photographers outside the door, waiting to capture any celebrities who had gone to the opera. Suyeon and Lucy caught their attention, at least until someone more famous came out the door behind them.

"That was fun," Hyun-Woo said. "You want to come back to our apartment and watch a movie or something? We can order in!"

Suyeon glanced over at Lucy. Seeing the slight nod that Lucy gave her, she said "That would be great!"

They took the bus to Hyun-Woo and Min-Kyu's neighborhood, everybody being very aware that they were out in public and so making sure to pay attention to the person they were pretending to date. When they got to Hyun-Woo and Min-Kyu's apartment, Min-Kyu called to order the food while the others sat down and started talking.

"So," Suyeon said to Hyun-Woo, "has Do-Hyun gotten off your back since we started dating?"

Hyun-Woo laughed. "Yes, he finally has. Of course, now we have to keep up the pretense."

"What's so bad about that?" Suyeon asked. "I think we get along great. I mean, neither one of us would be romantically interested in the other one, but we make great friends."

Hyun-Woo smiled at her. "Yeah, I guess we do. I'm just worried that he's going to expect us to take our relationship further - you know, bringing you around to meet my parents, that sort of thing. If we don't watch out, we could pretend ourselves into a wedding!"

"Yeah, that would be taking the pretense a bit far," Suyeon agreed, nodding thoughtfully. "So how long to we have before we have to break things off?"

Hyun-Woo looked up at the bus ceiling and chewed his lower lip as he thought. "Do-Hyun and Sei had been dating for about three months when he brought her to meet our parents, so I think you and I will need to break up somewhere before the three-month mark."

"So about two months from now," Suyeon said, nodding decisively. "We can manage that. And in the meantime we've gotten everyone off our backs for a while."

Hyun-Woo looked worried. "Yeah. But in those two months, we've got to come up with a good reason for breaking up - something that will keep our friends and family from trying to push us back today, but not something that will make your friends dislike me or Do-Hyun dislike you."

Suyeon thought for a moment. "Mutual incompatibility? We realize that we're never going to get married, so we decided to break it off rather than wasting each other's time."

"What about me?" Lucy asked. "Min-Kyu and I will have to break up too, but it'll look suspicious if we break up at the same time you do."

Suyeon looked thoughtful. "That is a problem. What can we do about that?"

"Do about what?" Min-Kyu asked as he came in and sat down by Hyun-Woo. Once he'd been brought up to speed, Min-Kyu cupped his chin in his hand, thinking seriously about the problem. "I think," he said, "that maybe Lucy and I never had a really serious relationship, so once Hyun-Woo and Suyeon break up, we sort of drift apart because we don't travel in the same social circles."

"That's a good idea," Suyeon said. "Because Lucy's so much younger, the others won't be expecting her to be as serious about things."

Lucy began to pout. "Is that what you think of me? 'Lucy's just the maknae, so she doesn't know what real love is?'"

"No," Suyeon said, leaning in to kiss Lucy quickly, "but it's what some of our friends might think, and we've got to be clever enough to use that to our advantage."

"Well," Lucy said hesitantly. "Okay. I guess."

"And in the meantime," Suyeon said, "we've got two months without our friends trying to set us up with somebody."

"That's true," Lucy said with a nod. "I just wish we could be honest with them. Things would be so much simpler."

"How do you think your members would react?" Hyun-Woo asked.

"Elly and Doyeon probably wouldn't like it," Suyeon said. "Sei probably wouldn't like it, just because she'd feel like I had been playing around with Hyun-Woo's heart. Rina and Lua probably wouldn't care one way or the other. And Yoojung's too tied up with her own problems right now to worry about what the rest o