“We should rotate the single rooms,” Sumin says quickly, bringing up an age-old point of contention. The villa has five bedrooms, and there’s nine of us. Which means everyone has a roommate except Mina, who got the one solo room. Until now, that is.

“I call dibs after Jiyoon,” Ari says, throwing her hand up in the air.

“No fair, I was going to call it!” Sumin says.

As they bicker, I look down at the cracked leather of my bag. They say distance makes the heart grow fonder. I hope that that will really be the case for us.

NINETEEN

GIRLS FOREVER, FOREVER NO MORE: RACHEL KIM PREPARES TO GO SOLO!

We fell in love with Girls Forever when they exploded onto the K-pop scene nearly six years ago, but as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. Has half a decade been long enough for Rachel Kim to fall out of love with the group? A source close to them tells us, “Rachel’s been unhappy with the other eight girls for a long time—she actually never got over the Jason/Mina love triangle, and has spent years forcing the rest of the girls to choose sides.” Another witness says they overheard an epic showdown happen at the girls’ villa last weekend, causing Rachel to storm out with her suitcases…

This is only one ridiculous story out of dozens that the tabloids have been churning out since I moved back home.

In order to do damage control, DB doubles down on booking group photo shoots and advertisements for the nine of us, making sure the world still sees us as one big happy family.

“Hang in there, girls,” Mr. Han says during our latest shoot. “Your schedules will go back to normal soon, but right now, it’s important that you stick together. The public’s confidence in Girls Forever’s sisterhood has already been shaken enough these days.”

I frown, grated by his comment. I know the company has more power to influence the media narrative than Mr. Han is letting on.

“And remember, ladies,” Mr. Noh warns, joining Mr. Han on set. “You don’t want to give your fans any reason to be worried about you when they should be celebrating your comeback.” Well, that’s at least a sentiment I can get behind. It’s late June now, but I know September, and our LA concert, will be here before we know it. We have to pull it together for +EVER. Our fans have supported us through everything, and we don’t want to disappoint them now.

The good news is, things within the group really have improved since I moved out. As exhausting as our schedule has been lately, I find that I’m excited to see the girls when I arrive at whatever set we’re shooting at; anxious to catch up with everyone and hear what went down at the house the night before.