“I—” I stop myself from answering her. “I’m gonna be late for my ride. Thanks for listening. I love you.”

“I love you too, Rach,” she whispers. “You’ll figure it out. You always do.” And then I’m out of the bathroom, grabbing my suitcase, and racing out the door.

“We will now begin our initial boarding for flight 872 to Geneva.”

I can hear the announcement just as we’re approaching the gate. Jongseok and I scan our boarding passes, then hurry down the gangway.

When we arrived at the airport today, there were double—no, triple—the paparazzi I’m used to. They’ve been on me even more since the RACHEL K. launch. I stopped by Nature Alley to grab my usual preflight almond-butter-and-chia smoothie, and nearly dropped the whole thing down my white silk blouse when a photographer jumped out from behind the espresso machine to snap a pic. Usually when I’m traveling solo (as opposed to with the group, when DB has us on a tight schedule), I love taking my time in the airport, stopping to pick up a fresh stack of magazines for the flight, stocking up on gum. But today I was glad we were running late. I just wanted to get through the airport as quickly as possible.

Finally, I’m on the plane, with my earbuds and my favorite pillow all ready to go, but when I go to cue up my relaxing flight music on my phone, I notice a media alert with my name in it. I’m tempted to just switch to airplane mode and forget about it until we land, but… that’s obviously impossible. I click on it right away.

RACHEL KIM MYSTERY MAN EXPOSED?

Oh. God.

Now I have to read on.