March

“You look like hell.”

“Why, thank you! Flatterer.” Luna said to SeungHo sarcastically with a sickeningly sweet smile. She had been avoiding him since her encounter with YoungBae. He would call and she would either not answer, or rush him off the phone. He had wanted to go out, but she refused, saying that she didn't feel well. So, they compromised and he came to her house.

“I brought the Bourne Trilogy. I know how much you like it,” SeungHo told her while trying not to stare. Luna really did look bad. She looked paler than usual and that made the dark crescents under her eyes stand out. She was noticeably thinner, the bones of her wrists were more prominent than before. “I also stopped and got your favorite sushi rolls.” He watched her put her hand over her stomach and swallow hard.

“No, thank you. I'll just have soup.” she told him, fighting back a wave of sickness. Luna turned away from him to look in the cabinet for the cans of soup she had been stocking ever since her stomach started giving her trouble.

SeungHo moved to her side and turned her to face him. He gripped her chin softly and tilted her head back. “What's wrong?”

“Nothing. I'm fine.” She assured him with a small smile.

“That, is a lie.” he challenged softly.

“Not a lie, just my version of the truth.”

“Not only have you been dodging me for a month, you've lost weight, you obviously aren't sleeping and you looked like you were going to throw up just now when I mentioned food. What's been going on?”

Luna shrugged and turned away from his observant gaze. “I'm fine. I'm just not hungry.” Because I can't keep anything down, anyway. He scrutinized her while she heated the soup in the microwave and made small talk. They caught up on what they had missed over the time apart. He, more than her. He talked about the preparations being made for their comeback, she listened. SeungHo tried to draw information out of her, but she was uncharacteristically quiet. She didn't even joke with him.

Something is definitely wrong.

*****

Twenty minutes into the movie, he realized that she hadn't touched her soup, though she held it in her hands. She lifted it to every once in a while, but the content never went down. She was pretending to eat. He could see that she was looking at the screen, but he didn't think she was that into the movie. It was more of a blank stare than an intent one.

“Luna,” SeungHo didn't think that he had spoken that loudly, but Luna jumped and spilled the soup all over herself. "Oh no. I'm sorry!"

"It's fine. It was cold, anyway," she assured him. Seungho jumped up, ran to the kitchen for a towel and they cleaned up the mess quickly. “Ugh. Now I smell like vegetable broth. I'll go take a shower. I'll be back down in a few."

Not long after he heard the water start in the bathroom, he heard another sound. He looked around and spotted Luna's iPad laying on the mantel. It was flashing about an incoming call from 'StaceFace'.

“Hello?” he answered.

“What? Who are you?”

“Yang Seungho. A friend of Luna's.”

“Oh, I've heard about you. I'm Stacy. Nice to finally . . .see . . . you.”

“Likewise. She's told me a lot about you.”

“And I'm sure most of it was bad and embarrassing,” she guessed with a laugh. “Where is she anyway?”

“She's upstairs taking a shower. She spilled soup on herself.”

“She's still eating soup? Yuk,” Stacy was quiet for a second and bit her lip. “Will you tell me something honestly?”

“I'm not in the habit of lying.”

“Good. How is she?”

SeungHo took a moment to think before answering. “Not good, in my opinion. She's thinner, paler. And the soup she spill on herself? She hadn't touched it, really. Maybe three or fours sips.”

“I knew something was wrong! She's been avoiding me for a month!”

“You too? This is the first time that I've seen her since the party. She rushes me off the phone and wouldn't let me come over.”

“So it's not just me, at least. Huh. I bet she's been sick this whole time and never told anyone,” Stacy sneered. SeungHo could see the anger and concern on her face as she bit her lip. “Do you know what changed?”

“I have no idea. I thought she was doing well, but then she dropped off the face of the earth. I was worried that I had run her off.”

“No, not you. That Bastard, likely has something to do with this.”

“'That Bastard'?” SeungHo asked with a smile.

“Her ex-boyfriend,” Stacy clarified, then paused again. “I have another question. What are your intentions with her?”

Seungho blushed. “Well, they aren't entirely pure, to be honest, but neither are they ill.”

That made Stacy laugh hard. “I respect your honesty, sir. Look, I'm worried about her. She's the 'suffer in silence' type because she thinks she leans too much on others. How prepared are you to incur her wrath?”

“If it will make her better, I'll do anything you need me to.”

“Yang SeungHo, I like you more and more. Here's what we're gonna do . . .”

*****

Young Bae walked tiredly up to the studio, opened the door a little, then stopped to tie his shoes. While he was bent down, he could hear voices and one of them said Luna's name.

“ . . . So, is she okay? I miss her, but I feel like I would be disloyal to Bae if I went over there.” YoungBae recognized the voice as JiYong's.

“Truth, hyung? No, she's not,” SeungRi's voice answered. The response made YoungBae's heart sink. “I haven't seen her either, but Stacy was really worried about her. She said Luna stopped answering her calls on FaceTime and every time she called she would claim she was busy to get off the call. She said she could tell Luna was hiding something from her.”

“Does Stacy have answers now?”

“She does, and she's not happy. She talked to SeungHo one night by accident, and he told her that she's lost a lot of weight, she's not eating and she's always sick. She just eats soup and drinks milk.”

“Oh, no. Is she going to be okay?” JiYong asked with genuine concern.

“Stacy had SeungHo drag her to go see JungHee, you know her doctor friend, and he did the ultrasound . . .” YoungBae couldn't hear what SeungRi said at this point because he had moved farther into the room. “I guess she'll be okay. She's getting the procedure done to fix it tomorrow. Stacy just got in this morning, so she can take care of her while she rests and heals.”

“How long . . .” JiYong began to ask, but his voice got muffled also.

“A little over a month, but she doesn't want it to go any further. She can't handle it. It's too much for her, being here on her own like she is . . .”

That was the last thing YoungBae heard before running down the stairs to get to his car. He almost knocked DaeSung down in his haste. His thoughts were consumed by what he had just heard. Sick . . .for a month . . . can't keep food down . . . ultrasound . . . not eating . . . lost weight . . . procedure tomorrow . . . doesn't want it to go further. Luna's pregnant and she doesn't want the baby.

I have to stop her.

It felt like on this day, when he was in such a rush to get to her side, there was an unusual amount of traffic to block his way. The advantage, was that he had time to think about how to talk to her about their future.

Because, yes, we are going to