Lia sat at the back of the black Maserati Levante rethinking all her life choices. 

Airpods on both her ears, she blasted Taylor Swift's reputation album, the song Dress still not making sense for her. Blame it on her long sunk Kaylor ship, but she cannot hear Dress the same way again.

All of this silence and patience, pining in anticipation
My hands are shaking from holding back from you (ah, ah, ah)
All of this silence and patience, pining and desperately waiting
My hands are shaking from holding back from all this (ha, ha, ha, ha)

Lia thinks back on those times she resonates with the lyrics and thinks about the girl who comes first in her mind whenever she listens to sappy songs. 

Shin Ryujin.

Shin Ryujin in that ing Range Rover that Hyunjin is driving at the moment.

Lia wants to blame Giselle for making her believe they'll stay in one coaster bus, but it's not her fault, really. Hyunjin's dad didn't really commit to letting his sole son use their company's bus. Giselle's family driver offered to drive, but since Somi's boyfriend would have to drive too, Hyunjin offered the same. Luckily, their older sister Tiffany offered her Range Rover for the youngsters to use. 

I'm literally surrounded by rich kids.

So here they are, split into two SUVs, with the love of her life on the other vehicle.

Love of my life? Choi Julia you're being dramatic. Lia scoffed at herself. 

They ended up in Vernon's Maserati.

Vernon, as Somi introduced, is her first boyfriend who's supposedly migrating to Canada but stayed back for the girl. Queen , me thinks. They were each other's childhood sweethearts, and just like Giselle and Hyunjin on the other car, they got together when they were in middle school.

Too young, too young. 

Lia found out that morning that Somi has long cleared everything with what's going on with her and Winter. She never really stopped gushing about how understanding Winter is. While Somi knows they could have been something more if she pursued Winter further, she tells them she was being unfair for using Winter to move on. 

You were not using me, we are friends! Winter would counter and Somi would just look at the girl lovingly, this time platonically. Somi explained how Winter was this compassionate person who helped her through everything without judging her and didn't even let her feel bad for jumping right back to her almost failed relationship.

Winter makes a cryptic comment of how she's thankful for Somi too because there are things that she would have not realized if it wasn't for the girl. 

Lia didn't miss the look Winter gave on the direction of their tall friend who's busy loading up her bags in the distance. 

As if she can hear what's on Lia's head, Karina turns back to their direction and looks at them curiously, causing Lia to feel her hair stand on end. 

Lia shakes her head from recalling the events that morning.

Lia glanced at Ningning beside her, mindlessly scrolling through her phone. She's got her AirPods as well, probably listening to some Sonata No. 42 in D Minor or some . She can see the love birds seated at the front talking happily whilst the guy was driving. Just in middle is Winter and Chaeryeong, or Chae as they all said, playing some games and yelling at each other every now and then. Sometimes, she'd see Winter smack the other girl and Lia would wonder how Chae can take all those.

Chae, as Lia observed, was a little bit like her in some aspects. The girl tends to be quiet and doesn't talk much when people around her are conversing, but whenever she opens to say something, Winter would lose it right away. She's witty and snarky, and Lia knew right away they'll click. 

Your parents let you go on a trip for three days with a bunch of strangers?

I know Ningning and Winter, they're not strangers.

Still, isn't your omma or appa strict? Are they like that with your other siblings?

Yeah, as long as someone is home I guess.

How many are you?

Five. Chaeyeon-unnie, me, Chaemin, Chaeri, Chaeso.

Heol, you're five children?? Daebak!

Yeah, two are dogs.

And then Winter would squeak right away, laughing like a broken door hinge.

Lia wonders what would the set up be if she's with Ryujin.

They would have been seated together if it wasn't for Yuna, that traitorous beast. Yuna wanted to sit with Karina but Ryujin wouldn't let her plus Giselle wanted Karina in the same car as her and of course, Giselle sits in the passenger seat where her boyfriend is, and her boyfriend would automatically want his twin sister in the same ing car. 

Phew.

So yes, she didn't get a choice. 

If her excessive eye-rolling and grumpy noises were not enough to let everyone know of her disappointment, then her message on the group chat should be enough.

Gang 🤟🤟🤟

Julia: Let's shuffle the car seating arrangement on our way back.

Aeri: We are not even halfway there and you're already talking about going home.

Julia: 🙄🙄

Karina: Let's swap on the next stop?

Julia: Thank ing God for Yu Jimin.

Karina: No need for that, Choi Jisu.

Aeri: But Rina!

Karina: Shut up Gi, you don't even talk to me. Why'd you still want me in the same car as you is beyond me.

Aeri: Just admit that you want to be with someone specifically on the other car.

Julia: Oooh, tea.

Karina: No swapping then? Okay.

Julia: IM KIDDING!!

-

The next stop didn't happen for two hours.

Lia was so bored she just basically did a whole song analysis for Taylor Swift's I Think He Knows.

Like, I want you, bless my soul
And I ain't gotta tell him
I think he knows
I think he knows

She's definitely singing about two different people in this song. Lia thinks. She sighed when she realized how pathetic she is. She jumped on her seat when Ningning suddenly let out a surprised yelp.

" oh my God!" the younger said, panicking on her phone and resulting in just dumping the device face down on her lap. Lia looks at Ningning in an attempt to ask her what happened but the younger just looked like she committed murder virtually using her phone.

On the other car, Yeji was busy watching Fear Street 1978 when a notification banner appeared on top of her screen.

@ningyizhuo liked your photo.

Yeji scrunched her eyebrows in confusion and opened the said photo, wondering how the hell someone was able to scroll through her tons of Instagram photos. This specific photo was posted 23 weeks ago, which was a mirror selfie she took when she came out of the Yoga studio. 

Yeji clicks on the account and sees Ningning as the owner, her eyes widening when she saw the girl was already following her. She may have missed it from the tons of followers she's getting every week. 

She clicks on the Follow button and scrolls through the girl's feed, smiling at the pictures posted and clicking the heart button for some. She clicked on the girl's profile to send her a message, but suddenly she was met with a notification that "User was not found."

What?

She refreshed her app at least three times now and it's still saying the same thing. 

Did she just—

Yeji leaned to the passenger seat and called Giselle's attention. The girl was busy adding songs to her playlist.

"Do you have Ningning's number?" Yeji asked.

"I do. Why?" 

"Can you forward it to me? I just need to ask her something." Yeji shrugged. Giselle nodded absentmindedly and did as she was told to. 

Yeji smiled at the notification on her phone showing the younger girl's digits. She quickly saved it and wrote a quick text to the girl.

You: Boo! 👻

Ning: wu dis?

You: Guess

Ning: Not in the mood, busy panicking. Kbye

You: What are you panicking about?

Ning: Something you have nothing to do about. Stop texting me I'm busy

You: Did you perhaps liked someone's old post on Instagram or something?

Ning: The ?

Ning: Who is this?

You: *sent a photo*

Yeji chuckled when she sees the typing dots appear and disappear every now and then. Sending the same picture the girl liked from 23 weeks back was too funny.

Looks like this summer vacation is going to be fun...

-

Karina is bored. 

No, bored is not the right word. 

Karina is fidgety.