The sound of banging on her door woke Lani from her silent slumber. She rolled over in her bed and tried to escape the noise by burying her head under the pillow. As the banging continued, Lani tried to fall back to sleep. She finally decided that if someone was wasting their time that early in the morning knocking at her door, it must be something important. Lani slowly forced herself out of the warmth of her bed and made her way to the door. When she opened it, her manager stormed in and threw something down onto the kitchen table. Lani couldn’t help but be confused. She strode over to the table to see a newspaper? Why was he showing her this? Lani picked it up and carefully read the headline, her eyes bulging when she saw her name. She read trough the article and her heart beat quickened. How did they get this information?

“Care to explain?” her manager said angrily.

“…” Lani opened to speak, but nothing came out. She was at a loss for words.

“Is it true?” he asked clearly furious. When Lani didn’t reply, he continued. “Is what the article said true? Were you really pregnant?”

Lani couldn’t bear to look at her manager and her head hung in shame. “I was... but then I lost the baby.” It broke Lani’s heart to be saying those words. After so many months, she thought she had buried all her emotions regarding the baby deep inside her mind, behind all the other thoughts she had had recently.

Lani’s manager softened when he saw the look on Lani’s face. He could tell that bringing this up was hurting her. “What happened to the baby?” he asked in a much lighter tone trying not to upset her more than he had already had.

“Miscarriage…” Lani could only say one word as all her emotions flooded her thoughts. She thought back to when it happened. If she had just told L.Joe, she would be preparing to have her baby any day now. She thought back to the day at the doctor; she didn’t want to go, knowing there would only bad news with the amount of pain she was enduring, but knew she had to, to save her child. Lani tried to push those memories away, but then L.Joe’s face, broken and hurt flashed across her mind.

She and her manager sat on the couch and discussed how they would resolve the problem. Lani made sure not to mention that L.Joe was the father and decided that she didn’t want him involved in this situation.

“I better get going, but you,” he pointed at Lani and looked at her sternly, “cannot leave this apartment. The place is crawling with reporters.”

-

Lani did as her manager said and stayed in her apartment. It was already just past noon and she sat around doing nothing but staring at her computer screen, keeping track of what people were saying about her. Lani was so concentrated on reading articles that she didn’t notice when Chunji walked in.

“Whatcha readin’? Chunji asked as he plopped down on the couch next to her.

Lani let out a yelp in surprise. “Chunji! What are you doing here?”

“I just wanted to hang out,” he said with a smile. His eyes shifted to the laptop screen and his smile faded. “I see you heard the news…”

“Well it is about me.” Lani closed her laptop and put it next to her on the couch. “So, what do you wanna do?”

“Hum, well to get your mind off of things, want to come over to the dorm?”

“The dorm…? But I’ve never been there before.”

“Exactly. It’ll be fun!” Chunji said with a playful wink.

“But…” Lani hesitated, “My manager told me not to leave. There are too many reporters.”

“If I could get in without being noticed, we can get out.”

Lani finally agreed, never able to resist his cuteness. Lani got ready, putting on sunglasses and a hat just to be safe. They headed down the elevator to the parking garage where they met Chunji’s manager. The ride was short and they talked lightly among themselves. The number pad beeped as Chunji put in the code to the dorm, the door opening with a click. Lani followed Chunji inside, taking her shoes off at the door. He led her to the living room where Ricky and Changjo were watching TV. Lani looked around to see the place much cleaner that she had ever expected. For a group of teen age boys, the dorm was spotless. The maknes sat staring mindlessly at the variety show they were watching, not noticing Chunji and Lani standing there until Chunji cleared his throat. They looked up and greeted Chunji and as they were about to go back to their show, they noticed Lani.

“Noona…” Ricky and Changjo both said.

“Hi guys, what’s up?” she replied lightly.

“Nothing really,” “Just watching TV,” they replied, keeping their responses shorter than usual without their normal cheerfulness.

Lani could sense a bit of awkwardness and knew the reason was the article. It saddened her knowing that their opinions of her could change as fast as overnight. Chunji, who’s reason to bring her there was to clear her mind, quickly changed the subject and offered Lani something to drink. She followed him to the kitchen where she was once again amazed by the cleanliness.  The counters she assumed to be cluttered with junk were empty. Instead it was a perfectly clean kitchen with no mess in sight.

“Something the matter?” Chunji asked as he handed her a glass of water.

“No… I just didn’t expect it to be so…” she started.

“Clean?” Chunji finished for her. “I think we’re oddly clean compared to other boy bands, but what can I say? L.Joe really likes keeping the place in order.”

“L.Joe?!” Lani exclaimed with wide eyes, not believing that L.Joe was the cleaning type.

Before Chunji could reply, they heard hasty steps coming towards the kitchen and before they knew it, L.Joe was standing in front of them.

“Lani?! What are you doing here?” he exclaimed as he hugged her.

They explained to him that she was bored at home and couldn’t be out in public. None of them brought up the article, knowing that it was a touchy subject, for both her and L.Joe.