“I’m sorry, Mr. Noh,” I say, biting my lip. I can already feel my toe swelling.

“You better get your act together before your big concert in LA,” he says, narrowing his eyes. He shoots a look at the other girls. “And I mean that for all of you. You’re a group. If one of you looks bad, all of you look bad.”

“Yes, Mr. Noh,” everyone says, chagrined.

What a disaster. I keep trying to catch Eunji’s eye in the dressing room, but like the last three days, she won’t look my way. My toe throbs. There’s already some dried blood around the nail, which looks purple and bruised. I hope it doesn’t fall off.

As we finish getting changed and head backstage, Jason jogs over to me, comfortably out of his stage clothes and dressed in an oversized white hoodie. “See you at the after-party?”

Right. The after-party. I hesitate. Leah is going, and so are the rest of the Girls Forever members. It probably wouldn’t look great if I didn’t go. But honestly, all I want to do right now is go home, lie on the couch with a hot cup of tea, and nurse my foot while brainstorming new bag designs for Lane Crawford. Over by the SUVs that will take us to the party, I see Eunji snickering with Mina and Lizzie. As they board their SUV, Lizzie overdramatically trips over her own feet, in what I imagine must be an imitation of how I looked stumbling onstage. Eunji and Mina dissolve into another round of giggles.

“Actually, Jason, I may just head home for today,” I say.

“Sure thing,” he says, holding up his hand in a casual wave goodbye.

I wave back, then make my way to where the managers are waiting, hoping Jongseok can drive me back to the villa instead.

I slump in the car, mulling over what Mr. Noh said. He’s not wrong. We do have to get our act together before our concert in LA. It’s coming up in just a few months now, and it’ll be our first big show since our Glow Asia Tour. If we can’t even pull off a single song in a local performance like tonight, how are we going to get through a whole international concert together?

I sigh, reaching for my phone. As I go to unlock the screen, I see that I have five missed calls from Appa. My heart starts racing. Why has he been so desperate to reach me? He hasn’t phoned me in ages, and suddenly I have five missed calls?

I call back right away.

“Rachel?” he says, picking up on the first ring.

“Appa, hi. Is everything okay?”

“More than okay, actually,” he says. I can hear the smile in his voice. My heart rate returns to normal, and my brain stops picturing hospitals, fires, and other disasters.