“Hi, Jongseok,” I say. “I see that the girls are at practice right now. Was there one scheduled for today?”

“No,” he answers, “not officially. They must have scheduled the extra practice on their own. Is there anything else I can help you with?”

“Can you hold on a second?” I ask, muting myself. To Leah, I say, “It’s just an unofficial practice.”

She reads my expression. “Do you want to go?”

I don’t have to, but something feels off about the girls scheduling a practice without me. Maybe they didn’t loop me in because they knew I was busy filming, but my gut is telling me it’s more than that. My gut is telling me to go.

“I feel like I should,” I say. But what about the rest of our shoot? The crew is going to kill me.

“I’ll take care of it,” Leah says, as if reading my mind. “I’ll tell the director I have cramps and need to lie down for a while. You can totally tell he’s the type to get stupidly squeamish over any sort of ‘women’s issues,’ ” she says, rolling her eyes. “How much time do you think you need? An hour? Two?”

“I can’t be sure. I have no idea what’s going on.”

“Just keep me posted,” she says.

I give her a quick hug. “Thank you so much, Leah.”

“Love you!” she says with a huge smile, then suddenly her face contorts with pain and she grabs her middle. “I’m not feeling so well…,” she says, heading toward the director’s chair. Oh she’s good. Guess all those years watching K-dramas have given her some acting tips.

I shove my feet back into my boots—so much for not ruining my pedicure—and get back on the line with Jongseok. “Can you pick me up and take me to headquarters?”

As soon as Jongseok drops me off, I head for the practice rooms. The girls turn in surprise when I burst in.

“Rachel,” Mina says, hands on her hips. “We thought you forgot about us.”

Forgot? I can’t have forgotten about something they never told me about—unless, did they?

“I didn’t,” I say carefully. “How much did I miss?”

“We just started,” Youngeun says.

“It’s nice for you to grace us with your presence,” Lizzie says, narrowing her eyes. “I hope you don’t make a habit of being late now that you have other more important things on your schedule.”

I shake my head, ignoring the bite in Lizzie’s comment. “You know there’s nothing more important to me than the group. But come on, let’s start rehearsal and not waste any more time!”