Chapter 33
Jiyeon waited behind a pillar while her boyfriend posed for photos with seven brothers in identical lavender suits. Eight brothers, if you counted the cardboard cutout of Apollo’s leader, Jaehwan. He’d been edited into a matching ensemble at the bride’s request.
“Well, he’s not dressed like the groom,” she said. “That might have been confusing.”
Denny lurked at her elbow, draped in black, a living bulwark with arms and legs and a lavender silk tie.
His presence kept taking fellow wedding guests by surprise.
Some shrieked in terror, much like Jesse when Cardboard Jaehwan came swanning out of the ballroom without warning.
Even now, he’d positioned himself as far away from leader-hyung as possible.
Standing next to Denny was a foolproof way of determining which guests were related to Kazu.
The whole family had developed an immunity, not even blinking when the guys introduced him as their manager.
Jiyeon could see why. Similar hulking figures could be found everywhere she looked, variations of her brother copied and pasted throughout the wedding venue.
They monitored from dim corners and guarded critical access points.
They patrolled the corridors and carried Apollo’s puppy in a bespoke sling provided by Vuitton.
Denny had strong opinions about this sling.
He also objected to letting Daisy attend a formal event.
Or did they change the dog’s name to Anastasia?
Jiyeon almost asked, but then her brother grumbled, “These jokers were late for rehearsal, and they’ll be late for the performance, too.
I needed them in that ballroom seven minutes ago. ”
“It’s still early. I bet we’ve got at least half an hour.” After the ceremony, guests had been funneled straight to cocktails in an adjoining lounge. Not everyone had made it over to the ballroom yet. “Let them do one more before you barge in."
“Do the math, Yeonnie. They take three steps and somebody asks for a picture. At this rate, it’ll be another hour to get from here to the table.”
“Not if they’re running. You know they’ll run if they think you’re mad.”
He gave a disgruntled huff. “I’m not mad at them. They’re not the ones giving out exclusive merch at the shop this weekend, of all weekends. It’ll be a bloodbath, and I won’t be there to barricade the doors in person. I wish Jeannie would torch every box like I asked.”
“Mom and Dad wouldn't let her. You know they want to make the fans feel like they’re welcome, ‘cause they love Apollo, so it’s no use fighting it.” Resting a hand on Denny’s arm, Jiyeon added, “You were right, when you said it’ll be over soon. Let’s just ride it out.”
She said this despite the fact that being here, attending this wedding, was the opposite of ‘just riding it out.’ Jiyeon understood that Eric came to Tokyo because they'd provoked him. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t heard from Prism since her plane touched down. She knew they were watching.
Denny issued a moratorium on photo ops and began herding the guys into the ballroom. Jiyeon went with them, trying not to think about Prism, or Leila, or Arthur. She wanted to be free of her problems for just this one fleeting weekend, at least. Why did it feel like she was asking for too much?
Bridesmaids flocked past her, trailed by waitstaff pushing trolleys.
Overhead, the vaulted ceiling glimmered with stars.
The ballroom was an enchanted woodland divided into four quadrants, each themed to a different season.
Pillars became trees bursting with green leaves or shedding drifts of pink blossoms, tiny crystal shards trembling from each bough.
The dance floor shimmered like ice under moonlight.
This provided a gorgeous backdrop for the next three photo ops, since Eunjae and his brothers didn’t like to say no.
Cardboard Jaehwan remained in the hall to greet guests as they came in.
The rest of Apollo fell into seamless formation every time someone requested a picture, always leaving a spot between Kazu and Nicky.
It was the space they saved for Jaehwan automatically, muscle memory, even though he’d been gone since April.
They felt his absence like a phantom limb.
And this wasn’t limited to their leader; when Kazu and Kei flew out first, two place settings appeared in front of their chairs at dinner, same as ever.
“Are they really okay?” she’d asked Denny, when he met her at the airport.
Maybe the faint undercurrent of tension was a figment of Jiyeon’s imagination.
She hoped so. But weren’t they joking even more than usual?
And weren’t they dodging the topic of Jungwoo’s offer from Emerald, treating it like a tender bruise?
“They have to be okay,” was her brother’s curt response. “Even if he doesn’t leave, they can’t be together forever. They’re nine different people. Sooner or later, they’ll have to live nine different lives. I keep saying this ‘cause they need to hear it.”
And yet: We’re worth a lot less when we’re not a full set, noona. We’re like toys you collect.
Suddenly, she couldn’t watch anymore. Jiyeon slipped away to find her seat at one of the two tables allotted to Apollo.
The napkins were folded into lilies, and the centerpiece was made of real branches painted silver, as if rimed with a thin sheen of frost. She took pictures for her parents and Jeannie.
Absorbed in documenting the decor, she was slow to register that someone had taken the adjacent chair.
Fingers walked up Jiyeon’s arm, tipped with long, flawlessly manicured nails. “Who left you all alone, unnie?”
She’d seen the movie posters, taped to the fridge and on random walls at each of Apollo’s temporary residences last summer.
These posters reappeared within hours of being ripped to shreds, as if by magic, so Jiyeon had come to know Hazel’s face very well.
She had the kind of beauty that stunned on impact.
It hit like an uppercut to the jaw, no holds barred.
But there was also a softness to her features, something warmer and more welcoming than Max’s good looks at first glance.
His beauty was built on precise angles, sharp as cut glass.
Jiyeon tried to tell her that it was fine to skip formalities. Why call her 'unnie' when she wasn't that much older? But Hazel waved this away. “Of course that's what I'm calling you. I don't need it getting back to my manager that I wasn't properly respectful. She'd nag me forever."
Under the ballroom’s dreamy lighting, it was almost too hard to tell that she'd dyed her hair again, going from the candy floss pink of one role to the luminous platinum blonde of another. "Sorry I tried to stab your boyfriend that one time. You’ll forgive me, right?”
“I'll think about it,” Jiyeon replied, wryly. It was only a music video, but still.
“Think about it faster. We're outnumbered, so we should stick together.” Angling her head in Eunjae's direction, Hazel said, “That's one hell of a haircut. I'm assuming you get the credit.”
Jiyeon had to admit that she'd outdone herself. “Some of my best work. Too bad I can't advertise.”
“You've made him so much hotter already. I haven't done that with mine yet. Maybe I’ll go through his suitcase while I’m here. I could get rid of all the cargo shorts.”
This reminded Jiyeon of something Eunjae mentioned at breakfast. “Hey, do you need anything? I heard they lost your luggage.”
“Again. They lost my luggage again, because I can never fly anywhere without weird shit happening. Thank god the dress was already here. Then Willa wanted me to sneak into this hotel and I told her to very kindly fuck off. I love my manager and I’d die without her, but I’m not scared of Max’s fans.
If they want a fight, they can have one. ”
“Did they give you a hard time?”
“They tried.”
An announcement rang out from the stage.
The bride and groom were due to arrive at any minute.
Denny reappeared, dour-faced, glaring at Hazel’s updo.
It was a variation on the classic French twist, simple and somewhat messy, although Jiyeon assumed that part was intentional.
The loose strands were there to give it an artless effect, and the jeweled hair pins added drama. She liked it.
Her brother did not like it and made his feelings known with zero preamble. “The weapons policy went out in two different emails, Miss Lim. Hand it over.”
“No idea what you’re talking about, officer.”
“Understood. I’ll count to three.”
Hazel swiveled in her chair. “And then what? What happens at three—“
“One.”
“I don’t have any weapons!”
“Two.”
“Where would I even put a weapon? Does it look like this dress has pockets? You know they had to sew me into it, right?”
He opened his mouth. Hazel whipped a pin out of her hair and surrendered it to the authorities, pouting horrendously. Goodness, that thing was sharp. Denny speared it through his boutonnière. “And the other one, ma’am.”
The second pin seemed like more of a very tiny knife to Jiyeon, not that she was an expert.
How fortunate, then, that the members of Apollo had managed to make it to their seats at last. They were the experts.
That was practically a katana, what was she doing, why did she have that?
Aww, Hazel’s hair was still so pretty even when you took the swords out of it!
Hazel threw herself at Namgyu, squealing. She had a clear favorite, and it wasn’t Max Lee, who took one look at his girlfriend and tried to leave. His bid to switch seats resulted in a reprimand from Denny. Or maybe it wasn’t a reprimand, but Max looked so agitated that it couldn’t have been good.
A shutter clicked. Jiyeon turned her head toward the sound and had to smile, because it was Eunjae burning through a roll of film in record time. He’d been so excited to bring that camera. He pointed the lens at her, smiling back.
“Ya,” said Kazu. “Why are you so quiet? Shouldn’t you tell her she looks nice?”
Jiyeon patted the chair beside her. Eunjae sat down and said, “I did tell her, hyung.”
“And that’s it? Shouldn’t you at least say something about the dress?”
“Ah, I did that, too.”
“Idiot. Would Ari take so many pictures if he didn’t think noona looks nice?”
“Oooh, but what did he say about the dress? Tell me, my son. I need to know.”
Eunjae paused to think. “The zipper works.”
Immediate implosion. Max and Jungwoo both fumbled their phones. Hazel stopped pinching Namgyu’s cheeks and promising to marry him in her next lifetime. Why would he say that? Why would he have anything to do with the zipper on that dress? Whatever happened to propriety?
“Who else was supposed to zip it up for me?” Jiyeon asked them, puzzled. “I couldn’t reach it by myself. And there was something wrong with the zipper when I tried it on the first time.”
“Oh my gosh. Ohhhh my gooossshhh, so who helped with Hazel’s dress—”
“My manager? Hello?”
Nicky had partially melted out of his seat. “But Max could’ve helped you with that,” he wheezed. “He’s a knight in shining armor.”
“Gross,” Max exclaimed.
“Yuck,” Hazel cried out at the same time. The chaos intensified from there.
Looking back, it struck Jiyeon as the most uncomplicated moment of the night, free of tension, light as air. Only later would she realize that Denny hadn’t laughed along with them.