Episode 14 #5
A few pleasantries later, everyone stood up and the chairs were moved to make space for mingling.
Jun and the other 5N members took pictures with fans.
Jun tracked the other four members as he worked the room.
Yohei and Geun were tag teaming Su-jin, making sure their youngest member was never left alone for long.
Security around the edges were on alert but relaxed.
The crowd was pleasant, chatting with each other, and the local and non-local personalities present.
It was happening. Had happened.
Mi Hi trotted up to him, Gigi hanging back a few steps. Someone caught her attention and she paused, still keeping half an eye on Mi Hi, but turning away as she saw Mi Hi skid to a stop in front of Jun.
Mi Hi held her phone up to Jun. “It’s blowing up. The video dropped ten minutes after we showed it here and it’s just skyrocketing.” She grinned, eyes so bright she almost looked like she’d become a child again in her delight.
Jun leaned in. “How are the comments?”
She grinned. “Really good. Some people are surprised and there’s lots of chatter. Which is just perfect. So much conversation. Lots of suggestions about what the five of you can remodel next.”
“Nope.” Jun shook his head. “We’re not remodeling anything without Collin. I might know the difference between a two-by-four and a one-by-eight now, but someone still has to tell me where to put them.”
Mi Hi giggled. “That’s not what Armada said. Jaewoong fixed her closet all by himself yesterday.”
“Jaewoong has many talents.”
Someone called Mi Hi’s name and she sailed away.
“Photos outside,” Cedric said, coming up to Jun. “It’s all set up.”
Jun nodded and signaled the other four. They made their way to the external stage where the local bands were on break between sets.
For a good ten minutes, cameras flashed and various people from the mayor to the local alderman and the bands who had been playing joined them on stage for photos.
Someone tossed a drone up to take a big photo with a lot of the attendees and even cooks from the food trucks came over to get in the frame.
With time up, Jun was grateful to jump down to the surface of the street and let the band, the same one he’d sung with before at the restaurant, take over.
Jun wasn’t singing with them tonight, but Su-jin was, which was attracting a lot of attention as they set up.
Jun jostled into the crowd, looking for Damian.
Most everyone was crowded around the food trucks along the edges of the street.
He stopped in the middle in a clear area.
Down the street a little he caught sight of his alpha talking to Linda by a streetlight.
It was getting dark, though barely. Illumination had come on up and down the area.
“So this is what you’re doing while you’re thinking .”
A cold thrill passed through Jun. Merchari .
Jun turned towards the hushed male voice addressing him. A man in sunglasses and a short brimmed hat wearing a tan coat and a beard stood just behind him and to the side. There was no one close to them, just the two of them standing in the middle of hungry people ordering food.
Sevastyan hadn’t warned them. They were supposed to have one more day. What did that mean?
Jun turned away, scanning the people within view.
Richard, Damian, Cedric, Holden, and the rest of 5N were all in sight, though at a distance.
Someone was even snapping a picture of him at that very moment.
He breathed through his nose, dropping into that headspace where he could do anything.
That distant, clear place he’d found in the mountain resort washed over his limbs.
Thought crystalized and narrowed down to a small array of points.
Everything he’d gone over with émeric the day before came rushing back.
He lifted his chin, not looking at the Merchari. “I told your agent to give me three days.”
“The Merchari never agreed to your time limit.”
“Your messenger did.”
“You assume you are in a position to negotiate.”
“Just because the terms are bad doesn’t mean I can’t decide whether or not to agree or bargain.”
“You’re ours.”
“No, I’m not.” Jun faced the Merchari.
“So you’re willing to risk the consequences.”
“I’m assuming you’re halfway decent at business and you actually want the debts repaid.”
The Merchari paused.
Jun cut his eyes. “What? You thought I was an idiot and going to tell you to fuck off? I don’t need three days to run the math on that.”
“Then what math were you running?”
“What kind of arrangements we could even come to, considering you and Bak Gyeong left us scrambling to have income at all.”
The Merchari grunted. “Go back to Bak.”
“As if. Cut your losses. His greatest positive to you was that he was forever in debt. He was running a lucrative business into the ground. Going by what numbers we have, he was going to have to keep selling idols into your black market every few years just to cover the interest you probably charged him on just the debt he claimed I owed him.”
The Merchari said nothing.
Jun raised his eyebrow. “I’m not fucking around with ephemeral terms like debt when actual numbers aren’t involved.
5N isn’t going to work without income again.
We already carried Bak’s broke, addicted ass, my father’s expensive taste, his entire family and at least one mistress, and whatever payments Bak was making to you.
And we’ve been doing it for years. The boys have to eat. Their aging parents have to eat.”
“Not our problem.”
“It is, actually.”
The Merchari stepped closer, almost as if he was about to try to intimidate Jun. Jun swung one foot to the side, leaving the Merchari at his side, unable to get in his face. A couple of people passed by. The Merchari reined himself in, stopping just short of making a threatening motion.
Jun spoke, sharply, switching to Chinese.
“It’s your problem because you have a choice: a quick, dirty paycheck, if you can get us, or a long-term steady income from a successful business arrangement.
You might get a couple hundred thousand each for us, maybe a million USD if you’re lucky and have the right buyer.
Say you’re lucky and you sell us for five million total.
You’ll spend a good portion of that covering your tracks and paying off everyone involved.
Five idols don’t just disappear without outcry. And that’s if you take us clean.”
The Merchari glared at Jun through his sunglasses, saying nothing. He obviously understood the language change.
Jun continued in Chinese, even though no one was right by them at the moment.
He ticked points off on his fingers. “Or you could treat this like business. You stay the fuck back and let me rescue BBB3, give me a solid accounting of Bak’s debts, and accept reasonable payments based on BBB3’s profits.
5N’s military service is done. We have another ten years in us, plus side projects.
BBB3 has one other exceptional idol group.
Let Bak Gyeong go to prison and let the courts hand BBB3 over to SP4700Y as compensation.
Five percent of BBB3’s profits, before paying out to idols and owners would net you payments far beyond what you could expect to recoup by kidnapping and selling five men in their mid-twenties. ”
The Merchari was quiet for a moment.
Jun held his ground in silence.
Finally, the man spoke, answering in the same language, a calculation in his voice that told Jun he was talking with a decision maker and not a messenger.
“You’ll have to give up this foolishness with the Sathers lawyer.
A few months of dalliance is nothing in the face of a career, or your freedom. Easy come, easy go.”
Jun jerked his head once, in a negative, switching back to English. “I could no more easily disappear out of Sather’s life than you could cease to be Merchari.”
The man’s eyebrows drew together.
Jun smirked. “Yes, Bak Gyeong wasn’t as brilliant as you thought. I have had a life outside of BBB3.”
“So he’s the reason you started to ask questions.”
Jun snorted a laugh. “No. Those conversations between Sathers and I only took place after someone decided to sell me for a sudden paltry sum, rather than calculate revenue based on an entire career and years of investment.”
“Then that was all you.” An assessing tone, almost respectful, but more annoyed. He’d also switched languages again. Jun looked around. More people moving around them, but not right by them. The music from the stage at the end of the street covered their conversation.
He shrugged. “The fact that he kept pushing for more and paying out less was obvious.”
“You realize that we cannot tolerate your proximity to Richard Reevesworth.”
“And you realize that I can’t possibly give up that connection.”
“Then how could we trust you?”
Jun took a step towards the Merchari, so that their faces were mere inches apart.
“You should be asking me how I can trust you. You already facilitated the sale of my body once. I’m not so foolish as to think I can go up against the Merchari and win without casualties.
That’s not what I’m trained for. What I am trained for is making money. ”
“You were becoming a liability. You are a liability.”
“If I was that much of one, you’d have that Russian of yours shoot me.”
“We’d rather sell you and get rid of the issue.”
“Except that Sathers will never let you do that quietly, now, will he?”
The Merchari took a step back, standing taller. “We could always put a bullet in his head.”
“Reevesworth would never let that lie quietly now, would he?” Jun cracked a smile.
The Merchari agent regarded Jun with a crooked smile. “You realize that by utilizing Reevesworth as your shield, you’re threatening us. We can make money elsewhere, eliminate the threat.”