The goofy smile drops off my face. “What?”

I grab the phone from Leah’s hands and scroll through the articles she has open on her screen. Every headline is the same: KANG JINA SAYS GOODBYE FOREVER TO ELECTRIC FLOWER. KANG JINA LEAVES DB ENTERTAINMENT. WHAT’S NEXT FOR DIVA QUEEN KANG JINA?

Leah grabs her phone back from me and clears her throat. “Listen to this, Rachel.” She starts quoting one of the articles. “Kang Jina has made the difficult, but necessary, decision to not re-sign with legendary K-pop girl group Electric Flower at the end of her seven-year contract, which is the legal maximum term for entertainment contracts in Korea. While the rest of her Electric Flower bandmates have signed new three-year contracts, Jina is reported to be leaving K-pop behind for good. ‘The luxury, the clothes, the wealth,’ says an anonymous source and close friend of Jina’s. ‘It was all going to her head, and she realized she had to step down now before she got too out of control. She said she couldn’t even recognize herself anymore. She was becoming a K-pop monster.’ ”

“Can you believe this?” Leah says, lowering her phone. “What’s Electric Flower going to be like without Kang Jina?”

I shake my head. I’m speechless. My brain rushes back to Jeju and the first time I met her. She didn’t seem like she was an out-of-control diva. If anything, she seemed pretty low-key, just a girl trying to enjoy a glass of wine on vacation. But what do I know? Maybe after that one bottle of wine, she went out and bought fifty more.

Still, I feel a sour taste in my mouth as Leah continues reading about Kang Jina and Electric Flower, and it’s not from the naengmyeon.

* * *

Hey, Werewolf Girl. If I remember correctly, you should be starting free period right about now. True or false?

I lean against my locker and grin, typing back quickly. Jason’s pretty much memorized my school schedule so we can talk on the phone during my breaks. It’s even better than that time last year when the school brought in puppies during finals week to help us relax between exams.

True. Want to FaceTime?

I actually had a different kind of “FaceTime” in mind.

My phone pings again, and I look, expecting another text from Jason, but it’s a message from Hyeri. Could you come out to the rose garden?

The rose garden? Sure, I type back, worried that I’ll find her there crying over Daeho.

I run through the school’s outdoor lounge and across the soccer field, searching for Hyeri as I approach the empty gardens that border the school’s property lines. My phone pings again. It’s Jason.

Turn around.

I whirl around and see him standing underneath the rose archway. As soon as he sees me, he lifts his phone into the air, holding it horizontally with both hands like a boom box.

A huge smile spreads across my face. “Jason,” I say, walking toward him. “What are you doing?”

“Serenading you,” he says, and hits play on his phone. “In Your Eyes” starts playing, and then he’s John Cusack and I’m Ione Skye and this is officially the best moment of my life.

He grins. “Am I dreamy or what?”

I laugh, my heart skipping several beats in my chest. Suddenly, though, I hear the bell ring for next period, and I realize that Jason and I are completely out in the open. Where anyone could see us. A nervous sweat begins to build on the back of my neck, and I grab Jason’s hand, forcing him to duck behind the rosebushes.

“Jason! This was a very bad idea. What if someone sees us?” I whisper-shriek, the sweat now spreading down my back.

“Don’t worry about it! Hyeri is standing guard at the door, telling everyone the rose garden is closed for a private assembly,” he says as he wiggles his eyebrows at me.

I resist the urge to giggle and instead roll my eyes. “Okay, but that doesn’t mean that people aren’t still out here. Or that they can’t see us from the second- and third-floor windows. Come on,” I say as I pull him up. “Follow me.”

I lead him into the school, glancing around the corners of the hallways. The coast is clear, and I hurry him to the music room. It’s always empty this time of day.

Only when the door is safely closed behind us and I’ve drawn the curtains that look outside do I let myself step into his outstretched arms, pressing my face against his chest, nearly melting into him. This is so much better than FaceTime.

“I can’t believe you’re here,” I say.

“Well, I never did get to go to high school.” He smiles and tucks a strand of hair behind my ear before spying a guitar in the corner of the room.

“Perfect. Now I can serenade you for real,” he says as he grabs it, looping the strap over his shoulder. “Taking song requests on Jason Jukebox. What would you like to hear?”

I shake my head and giggle. “Ooh, how about that great song ‘Love Letters Start With U,’ ” I tease, naming NEXT BOYZ’s classic debut song. I take a seat on the piano bench and cross my legs, waiting expectantly as he finishes tuning the guitar.

He strums the chords and starts to sing. “Let me write a letter, baby, and seal it with a kiss. It starts with U and ends with U ’cause you’re the one I miss oooooh.”

He’s hamming it up, making goofy, exaggerated facial expressions as he sings, but he still sounds amazing, especially with the guitar. I almost forgot that he played. He used to sing with it all the time when he did his YouTube covers, but now he mostly just sings and dances with NEXT BOYZ, sans guitar. It’s wild how effortlessly good he is, strumming like he doesn’t have to think twice about it.

“Next song on Jason Jukebox!” I say. “Something sweet and classic.”

He seamlessly transitions into the next tune. “I’ll be your dream, I’ll be your wish, I’ll be your fantasy, I’ll be your hope, I’ll be your love, be everything that you need.”

I crack up. Of course, what’s more classic than Savage Garden?

“I don’t know if you can top that one,” I say between my laughter.

A gleam lights up in his eyes. “Okay. How about this one?”

He slows down, strumming a melody that I’ve never heard before, but it hooks me instantly.

“I’m back and forth, the push and pull, I’m falling fast and floating free. I’m a glass half-empty or half-full, caught in between two galaxies.”

The music is soothing and grounded, and the lyrics more indie than anything he’s played so far.

“Am I a sandcastle king or a lost boy from the sea? I’m none and everything, a me that’s only me. I am the shore.”

He strums the final chord, and I let out a deep breath. I feel like I’m coming out of some sort of trance. “That was really beautiful. Who’s it by?” I ask.

He smiles shyly, placing the guitar back on the stand. “Actually, I wrote it. Ta-da. It’s a Jason Lee original.”

My mouth drops open. “I didn’t know you wrote songs.” Even as I say it, I remember how Jason reacted when I teased him at Kwangtaek about K-pop stars never being allowed to write their own lyrics. “How did I never know this?”

“Songs like this aren’t really DB’s style.” He shrugs like it’s meaningless, but the tightness in his smile gives his true feelings away. “To be honest, though, it’s the kind of music I really want to sing. Something that has meaning to me, that reflects my real-life struggles. Like this song and how I always feel torn between these two identities.” He pauses, glancing at me. “Not that I don’t appreciate NEXT BOYZ or DB or everything they’ve done for me. It’s just not the same, you know?”