Chapter 29
NOAH
Whoever said that sleeping on your problems would make them go away was either a fucking liar or incredibly naive, because everything seemed so much worse the next morning.
The stark realization of my late-night make out with Minho hit me the moment I woke up, and I buried my head under my pillow for as long as possible before Skye annoyed me into getting up.
Things did not get better once we headed downstairs.
Okay, that wasn’t strictly true. Things briefly looked up when I sleepily realized that we had a new coffee machine, and Z generously made me one without even asking. But then I noticed Torin was avoiding me while I was avoiding Minho. It was a whole mess.
I desperately needed to talk with Minho and tell him the whole truth, but every time I worked up the nerve, I would hear his voice in my head saying I don’t want you to be a girl and then I chickened out all over again.
Not that I had a whole lot of opportunities, anyway.
We barely finished our coffees when the hair and makeup team arrived, quickly followed by the production team.
“Clik Games round one results,” Ace announced as I yawned into my nearly empty coffee, pushing Skye into the makeup chair ahead of me so I could buy a couple more minutes to wake up.
“Live announcement show was cancelled due to the ongoing murder investigation for Cat Kay, so we have to film our reaction and submit it instead.”
I gave a sleepy nod because he’d already told us about this. I just hadn’t realized it’d be so damn early in the morning.
“How are you doing this morning, Eight?” Ace asked, planting one of his big hands on my shoulder and giving it a little squeeze. “Did you sleep all right?”
I blinked up at him, getting lost for a minute in his almost unnaturally pale blue eyes. “Um…”
Did he know what’d happened between me and Minnie? Had Torin told him? Had he also seen us and just not said anything? Or was I being paranoid and he was just referring to the incident with Xavier and the pool? “Yup. I slept.”
Sort of. A little bit.
Ace cocked his head to the side, looking at me with curiosity before one corner of his lips kicked up in a half smile. “Are you sure you’re not mad that I told the team about your drowning phobia? You seem not quite your usual self this morning.”
He’d already apologized to me for breaking my confidence, but it was a nonissue.
I didn’t withhold that information because it was a secret or because I was embarrassed.
It just hadn’t come up so I hadn’t felt any need to share with the whole team.
Better that they knew, so no one else tried pressuring me into swimming with them.
“I’m not mad, Ace,” I assured him, forcing a smile to my own lips. “I just slept weird.”
His hand remained on my shoulder and his eyes studied mine, like he was trying to pry inside my brain and work out what I was really thinking.
Thank God he couldn’t, because when he locked gazes with me, all I could think about was: What kind of kisser would he be?
Controlling and careful, like his personality?
Or total opposite, all instinct and desire?
“About Xavier,” he finally said in a quiet voice, clearly not wanting the whole team listening and offering their opinions. “I know you guys don’t get along great right now, but it’s starting to become a topic of concern for management.”
Dread pooled in my stomach and my spine stiffened. Xavier was Ace’s best friend and a core member of the team. If I couldn’t convince management that we could work together, then it wouldn’t be him leaving, it’d be me. And then where would that leave Miles?
“I’m not saying it’s an issue or anything, Eight,” Ace quickly tried to reassure me, squeezing my shoulder again like he wanted to physically ease the tension currently coiling through me.
“But I want you to bear it in mind while cameras are on. And be warned that they’ll be asking more from the both of you, to squash rumors that our team isn’t cohesive.
None of that means that you have to suddenly be best friends or even like each other much privately, but—”
“But publicly, put away our weapons and pull out an olive branch?” I guessed, grimacing through my anxiety. It was somewhat disheartening to know that Xavier’s dislike of me wasn’t just my overactive imagination. If Ace and management had noticed, then he must not be hiding it.
Ace nodded, still holding my shoulder and my gaze. It was hard to look away when he stared so intently. “Ideally, yeah. Can you do that for me?”
For you? Shit, when you phrase it like that… “Yeah, of course. Easy. Don’t even worry about it, Boss. Xavier and I will be best of friends in no time.” Then because those words tasted like a lie, I added, “At least on camera.”
Somehow, despite his apology last night, I seriously doubted Xavier had undergone a personality transplant in the past twenty-four hours, so we wouldn’t be braiding each other’s hair and sharing secrets anytime soon.
“That’s all I’m asking,” Ace replied with a warm smile. “Thanks for understanding. I’ve already spoken to Xavi, too, so he’s on the same page. Leight wants us to film new content for the episodes later, and you guys will likely be paired to work together. I just wanted you to be prepared.”
He gave me another little shoulder squeeze, then released me when Skye stood from the makeup chair looking just the same as when he’d sat down except with flawless skin. I had to hand it to them; the makeup team did a good job of stage makeup without making any of the team look girly.
The production team set up to film in our living room, which was both comfortable and seriously uncomfortable at the same time. I found myself sitting between Ace and Minho, which was a position I sort of didn’t hate, even if I was being a little bitch about telling Minho all my secrets.
There was a whole segment where one of the directors asked us a bunch of questions about our Byte challenge and what sort of preparation we all had to do, why we’d chosen such a public location, and pointedly asked why I’d decided to forego the safety harness.
For the most part, the rest of the team handled the answers with the grace and confidence of practice, and I just offered smiles and nods where appropriate.
When Ace answered the questions about our public location and my lack of safety harness, he draped his arm over my shoulders to give me an affectionate side hug.
Almost immediately, Minho cracked his knuckles, then oh-so-casually rested his hand on my thigh. My pulse raced, and everything Ace was saying sort of faded to static as I tried not to react, but internally I was screaming. Was Minnie jealous? Why the fuck was that such a turn on?
Stop it, Noah! This isn’t okay!
But at the same time, the cameras were rolling so…what the fuck did I do? Ignore it? Seemed like the safest option. Especially when Ace left his arm there and Minnie’s hand slipped higher as he responded to a question, one of his fingertips finding a rip in my jeans and smoothly sliding under.
Fuck. Why the hell was such an innocent gesture making me so hot and bothered? Maybe I needed a night away from the team to blow off some steam. Maybe then I could actually think straight around my team, instead of assuming they were also feeling all the sparks flying.
At least I knew Minnie reciprocated. Any doubts remaining in my mind about him playing me for fan service were erased when I’d seen him taking care of business after he thought I’d already gone to bed. Fake feelings didn’t get a guy that worked up.
It wasn’t until Ace ruffled my hair that I realized a question had been specifically directed my way and I’d been sitting there like a statue as I overthought everything and everyone.
“Hmm?” I asked, internally wincing at how warm my face just became. “Sorry, I…um…I was a million miles away. What was the question?”
Minho chuckled slightly under his breath, his fingers flexing ever so subtly on my thigh, and I nearly batted him away in retaliation.
That would have brought more attention to it, though, so I cleared my throat and tried to pay attention while the director repeated his question about whether I knew the safety net was there to catch me.
“Ah,” I said slowly, the cogs of my brain working overtime as I tried to decide how to answer. I decided on honesty. “No, I didn’t.”
Ace inhaled quickly beside me, and I knew he was bracing himself for a potential shitstorm.
“But Xavier and Ace take the safety of the whole team really seriously, and I’m glad they do.
I feel like the underlying message of our Teamwork Challenge was not in completing the course itself but more about our leader proving that he would always take care of us, even in the face of our own stubborn god complexes.
” I turned my head so I could meet Ace’s eyes with a smile, even as his stiff posture relaxed. “Thanks for not letting me die, Boss.”
Ace gave a small shake of his head, his breath puffing out in a quick exhale. He couldn’t try to shift credit to Xavier without disagreeing with everything I’d just said. But the irritated grunt I heard from Xavier perched on a barstool behind our sofa was satisfying as hell.
There were just a few more questions, then the director handed Ace a sealed envelope containing the final Clik numbers and judging scores for our first challenge. I peered over to read the paper before he announced it and gasped slightly at what I saw there.
Ace, of course, read out the relevant data, which named our team as the winners of the challenge by a huge margin on second place, and the team gave the expected cheers and smiles for the cameras.
But I had to force mine, because the line above our team name and results was struck out.
Cat Kay’s team had earned enough Cliks on their Byte to win the challenge, even though our judging scores were higher.
I suppose live stream murder wasn’t what they were looking to showcase, though.
Cat Kay’s team had already formally withdrawn, so there wasn’t any reason to announce the actual winner.
With a pointed look my way, Ace firmly folded the paper and put it back in the envelope, hiding it away.
I forced myself to act the part of exuberant winner until the director called “Cut!” and cameras stopped rolling, then I quickly excused myself to catch a breath.
I’d bet anything those Cliks were almost entirely generated thanks to her murder. People were kind of sick, even if they pretended they weren’t. Her terrible death drove an absolute tidal wave of traffic toward the team’s Clik Games entry.
A sick feeling coiled through my gut as I poured myself a glass of water with a slight tremble in my hand, and Ace approached with a worried frown.
“What are you thinking, Eight?” he asked quietly, studying me with that intense gaze of his.
I took a sip of my water, and then licked my lips.
“I’m thinking…” I said carefully, keeping my volume low, “that if anyone else sees those results, they might draw parallels between the near-death content of our win and the actual death of Cat’s live stream.
And I worry that hers won’t be the last of the bloodshed during these games. ”
I wanted Ace to disagree and tell me I was being paranoid. But he didn’t. He just gave a small nod and brittle smile. “You’re smarter than I initially gave you credit for, Eight,” he said with a lopsided smile. “No more unnecessary risks from here out, okay?”
I nodded my agreement quickly. One brush with death was enough to remind me that I was, in fact, just human. And that I really didn’t want to die. But maybe it wouldn’t be due to my own negligence next time.