95 Love Conundrums

For the rest of the morning, Iris chatted and exchanged musical ideas and language tips with Jackson. The man was a wealth of information and good ideas having been an idol in both of the Korean and Chinese markets.

His independent activities under Team Wang along with being in the GOT7 team as well as a rap mentor on a previous music survival show all mirrored similarities in Iris. So it was easy for them to get along with plenty of shared similar experiences and backgrounds too. After all, Iris Huang was half Chinese.

She returned to the dorm afterwards, geared up for the rest of the day to get out all her inspirations on paper and in song.

"Wow cuz, you sure are pumped," remarked Cindy overlooking Iris's shoulder. "I'm back from dance practice, and you're still going at it all this time. Take a break will you? Before you collapse of exhaustion just as we begin the tour."

Iris smiled and waved her concerned cousin off. "No worries, I'm fine! It's not that late, and I already made sure to eat! I won't stay up late and get lots of rest for tomorrow's concert."

"Mmm, all right, if you say so~"

"Oh! By the way Cinds, you're all buddy buddy with Yugyeom, huh? Jackson mentioned you and him today, haha!"

"He did?!" Cindy's eyes widened a little in surprise. "What did he say?" She furrowed her eyebrows, a tad apprehensive.

"Hm?" Iris looked up at Cindy, noticing her tense expression. "Why so nervous? It's nothing bad lol. Just that you guys are close. Oh, and that Jackson suspects Yugyeom likes you possibly, but that was probably a jok—"

A crashing sound startled Iris and cut off her words. Swiveling swiftly around in her chair, she was met with a klutzy Cindy who was picking herself up from the floor after knocking into some furniture and items.

"Pft!! What was that? You got shocked?"

Cindy flashed a pointed look at Iris's tease. The glare given was quite cute in her eyes.

"Just—! A little, okay?! I— thought he was being rather nice, but I didn't think much of it. You— .... you don't think Jackson is right?"

Cindy looked at Iris with worry.

"Why? Is it troublesome?"

Cindy shook her head. "It's not that, I just— I don't know. He's a nice guy, and we get along super well. But.... after what happened with Taehyung I'm not sure if I want to get into a relationship."

Frown lines started lightly etching themselves onto Iris's face. "You never did tell me what happened with him. V really liked you? It still looks like he does. Just what went wrong anyway?"

A small sigh escaped Cindy. "It's not that anything went wrong.... we just drifted apart. He didn't say why because I think he doesn't want to hurt me or make it awkward since we're in the same company. And the thing is... it's not like he ever confessed or anything."

"Unspoken, huh?"

"Yeah.."

Their relationship reminded Iris of her and Jin. However, at the end, he had been more open about it. But perhaps it was because he was leaving that he felt desperate to say something.

"Well, we girls have too much to do to focus on finicky men, so let's just rock the entire world instead, amirite?"

Cindy chuckled. "Yeah! Who needs them when I got four beautiful ladies with me!"

A different voice responded from another room. "Thanks Cinds!"

"You're welcome you darn eavesdropper, Jiyeon!" Cindy called back. A loud snort and burst of laughter followed from Jiyeon and presumably Ahreum. Rinah had kitchen duties today and was cleaning the dishes farther away to be able to overhear Iris and Cindy.

Hearing this exchange, Iris merely smiled while wrapping up her work. While none of this would be used for their current concerts and promotions, Iris was satisfied with having more material for their first comeback.

Sometimes, she had trouble incorporating multiple people's ideas into a cohesive one. Bur Jackson gave her some nice pointers today.

In the future, these two would meet up every so often, sometimes with Mark and or BamBam. They held their silly language classes along with serious talk. Other times more LUXIA and GOT7 members came. And organically, the two groups grew closer. Perhaps just like with BTS's friendship with GOT7, the sister group LUXIA naturally clicked with them too. Or maybe it was a JYP thing as LUXIA still kept up friendships with ITZY.

Before all this though, LUXIA had to finish their world tour. This included multiple cities in South Korea, some in Japan and China, and two in the US, and some European countries and Brazil. A good start for a first tour.

Apparently, Cindy had a large following in Europe because of her western princess-like looks. And Jiyeon was interestingly the favorite of China, maybe due to her fierce but elegant style.

Ahreum on the other hand was loved by the Japanese for her cuteness. Many thought she radiated Sana-like energy, a member from the girl group TWICE who were popular in Japan.

Both Rinah and Iris didn't have any notable places, but Iris did have an edge in the US while Rinah did most well in South Korea as she was the perfect female idol singer and visual.

All together, the world tour was a smashing success, breaking records for every rookie girl group worldwide. It astounded LUXIA to no end how much love and support they received almost from the get-go. And many news outlets reported on their astonishing debut and skyrocketing success.

However, with popularity and acclaim came also almost equal criticism and hate. People were unwilling to see new artists usurp their favorites. Yet LUXIA took this all in stride.

But it wouldn't be long before their biggest adversary in YG's new girl group would challenge them. The winter of 2021 soon arrived, bringing a new anticipated face onto the music scene.