41. Countdown #2
Long enough to understand exactly how vulnerable we were.
Sang-hoon sat silently beside me as the bus left the airport islands.
“What happens now?” I asked.
Liam answered. “From a security standpoint, canceling or postponing the concert would be the safest course.”
No one argued. Even Sang-hoon appeared relieved.
“We’ve discussed it,” Eun-ji said. “It remains an option. But Starhouse would absorb the cost of the stadium, production equipment, security, and hundreds of temporary employees. Every ticket would have to be refunded or exchanged, and we’d need a credible reason for postponing the biggest concert of the tour. ”
“When could we reschedule?” Min-kyu asked.
“I checked this morning. World Cup Stadium has no available dates until the end of the year. By then the tour will be over and the current album cycle will have peaked.”
I looked around the bus. “If we cancel, does the threat end?”
Jason shook his head. “As far as we know, Sara wants to hurt you or another member of Pryzm to distract attention from the audit. Without the concert, all five of you, or six, with Sang-hoon, remain potential targets.”
“It may actually be harder to protect you,” Liam said. “At the stadium, we control the environment. Once everyone returns to ordinary life, we don’t.”
“When is the audit?” I asked.
“The quarter ends June thirtieth,” Eun-ji said. “Once Finance closes the books, every major account will be reconciled. If Sara hasn’t disappeared by then, she’ll have to explain where the missing money went.”
“And afterward?”
Aidan answered. “We don’t know. Our theory about her motive is based on the evidence we have. If we’re wrong—if this is about a personal grudge against you or the group—the threat could continue.”
“So even if we cancel, Sara still controls what we do.”
No one contradicted me.
Fans had saved for months to travel to Seoul. Families were bringing children to their first Pryzm concert. People had followed us across three continents and were counting the hours until Tuesday night.
But it wasn’t only about them.
We had spent weeks reacting to Sara. We’d changed our travel plans, traveled in secret convoys, and performed surrounded by security officers. Every decision had been based on what she might do next.
She didn’t have to kill me to destroy my life. She only had to make me afraid enough to stop living it.
“I want to perform.”
Sang-hoon took hold of my arm. “Jin.”
“You told me we couldn’t keep waiting for later.” I looked down at him. “You were right.”
Aidan was examining the recorder. “Before you decide anything, there’s something you should know. Grace recorded conversations between you and Sang-hoon.”
My stomach tightened.
“How intimate?” Eun-ji asked.
“Enough to expose their relationship completely.”
A silence settled over the bus.
“You don’t have to hear it,” Aidan told me.
“I want to know.”
He pressed a button.
For several seconds there was only muffled movement. Then Sang-hoon’s voice filled the bus.
When this tour is over, I don’t want to go back to pretending.
My own voice answered him, quiet and unmistakable.
Neither do I.
Aidan stopped the recording.
No one looked at us.
They didn’t have to. Those words had been spoken in my hotel room in S?o Paulo, behind a locked door. Grace had found a way inside the one place where Sang-hoon and I had believed we were safe.
I took his hand.
“If I cancel because I’m afraid, Sara doesn’t only steal the concert from fifty thousand fans. She steals another piece of my life.”
“What if people find out about us?” Sang-hoon asked.
“They’ve already seen you save my life. If they ask questions, I’m not going to pretend I wish those photographs had never been taken.”
Eun-ji studied me. “You’re saying we don’t hide.”
“I’m saying we perform the concert.” I looked at Sang-hoon. “After that, whatever happens, we face it honestly.”
Aidan nodded. “Liam and I will make World Cup Stadium the safest venue in Korea.”
The others began talking about new security arrangements, but I looked through the bus window as we drove through Incheon toward Seoul.
Somewhere beyond the highway, my parents were waiting for me. They knew nothing about the threats, the knife in S?o Paulo, or the man whose hand I was holding.
I had spent years telling myself there would be a better time to tell them everything.
But later kept moving.
“What are you thinking?” Sang-hoon asked.
“That I’m terrified.”
“I know.”
“Not only of dying.” I looked down at our joined hands. “I don’t want everything we are to exist only in hotel rooms and backstage corners. And I don’t want my parents to spend the rest of their lives believing they knew me when they only knew the version Starhouse sold them.”
He tightened his fingers around mine.
“I don’t want to lose you before we find out what we could be when we’re not hiding.”
Sang-hoon lifted my hand and pressed his mouth to my knuckles.
“Then we survive this,” he said.
I wanted to believe him because Aidan and Liam were good at what they did. Because Jason had doubled security. Because Starhouse was taking the threats seriously.
There were still two and a half days until World Cup Stadium. Two days should have felt like time.
Instead, it felt like a countdown.