Chapter 38
In theory, Jiyeon knew what needed to be done. Just get started, said the rational part of her brain. The advice had worked for her in the past. But every time the shop’s ruined facade appeared in her mind, she wanted to cry again.
She didn’t. Jiyeon avoided the shop, letting her parents coordinate with Prism on cleanup, now scheduled for Wednesday morning.
She toured four prospective salons chosen by Prism and had a pile of raw material waiting to be turned into content.
Daily, she told Eunjae she was fine. Jiyeon told everyone she was fine.
This wasn’t true, and now she’d been hiding on the back porch at Ivy Lane for hours, getting nowhere with the video she was supposed to edit. But what did it matter?
Stay with Erin. When you’re not with Erin, stay home and stay safe.
Eric’s emails said the same thing over and over again.
Jiyeon complied. This was easier than fighting, and probably wiser.
What did she even know, anymore? Trudging through empty retail spaces, she evaluated a dream she’d believed in and pursued for decades, now increasingly in tatters.
There wasn’t anything wrong with the locations Prism found, even if none had felt right to her.
Thanks to all the tours, Jiyeon was forced to confront the truth: she didn’t want to open a salon.
Her dream had changed. It felt like a betrayal of who she was, of the person she’d thought herself to be.
It felt like giving up. And it would help if she could at least figure out the new dream, to adjust her trajectory, to begin again after wasting so much time.
She yearned for something else but couldn’t name it.
Dully, she checked for news about Apollo. Fans continued to blame Hazel for posting, for merely existing, and for Max’s absence at that group dinner on Saturday night. Eric had pushed them to keep the reservation. Later, Eunjae described that joyless meal as the worst they’d ever had together.
Prism took Max’s defiance in stride. They made sure to propagate paparazzi photos of him arguing with Hazel up and down the aisles of a convenience store, dressed in full evening attire, both of them beautiful and utterly furious.
The gossip machine resurrected articles on Hazel’s dating history.
Fans criticized the number of villainous acting roles she’d taken, and how often she replied to rude social media comments with reciprocal rudeness.
Her idol boyfriend was squeaky clean in comparison.
>> just look at her lol u can tell she’s messy as hell
>> fr lol girlie’s a psycho
>> It’s fake!!! None of that is real!!!
>> Shame on u Hazel for USING Max like this!
>> We know u don’t really LOVE him!
>> Max omg you can do better than her
The door slid open on its rails. Jeannie pushed the blinds aside. She slipped through the gap with red-rimmed eyes, a hairbrush in her right hand. In the left, she had a hair tie and some pins.
Jiyeon sat up, freeing herself from the mire because she thought Jeannie had come to be comforted.
Even as a child, she'd ask to have her hair braided after a hard day, or in anticipation of anything big and scary that was supposed to happen. On the morning of her uncle’s funeral, Jeannie sobbed while Jiyeon combed out the tangles.
She’d requested a braided ponytail an hour before her driving exam and a braided updo for commencement. She always said it soothed her.
But when Jiyeon moved to take the brush, Jeannie wouldn't let her have it. “I know how to do this one,” she said, sniffling. “I watched your video two million times.”
“You're here to braid my hair?”
“Yeah, and then we’re gonna go fight the twins.”
“We’re… gonna go fight Steph and Sienna?”
She was an expert on Jeannie’s long and adversarial history with Arthur’s nieces, both in middle school.
The three had a puzzling dynamic, considering how many interests they shared.
Stephanie and Sienna Hong were K-pop fans because of Jeannie, who used to be their babysitter.
You’d think they’d get along well, but the opposite was true.
“You know they’re Sunshines,” she said, pulling the brush through.
She tried not to tug too hard on Jiyeon’s indifferent, flyaway waves.
“I got the most obnoxious text message. Just thinking about it makes me so tired, ‘cause I wasn’t built to be mad all the time, right? Being mad uses up tons of energy that I just don’t have. ”
“Why are you mad? Do I want to know?”
“You have to know! That message was about you and Denny, they saw someone’s stupid post on Star-Connect and then one of the biggest Ari fan accounts is spreading lies—”
“Ari fan account. So they only post about Eunjae?”
“Yeah, they post every time he breathes. ‘This is what Ari wore to the airport!’ ‘This is the book Ari was reading on last night’s episode of Shine Bright Apollo!’ If you ever get murdered, I’m reporting them as primary suspects.”
“What he wore to the airport,” Jiyeon murmured to herself. Did she even know what Eunjae wore to the airport?
“Focus! They’re saying… they’re saying your whole family took advantage of Ari being sad and lonely. You guys don’t really care about him. It’s just an act.”
Jeannie dissolved into tears, equal parts heartbroken and enraged. Meanwhile, Jiyeon wasn’t sure where to start with these accusations. Her family didn’t care about him? Based on what evidence?
The search results opened with standard offerings: Emma Han’s Instagram account, the official website for Sunshine 24/7, a local news feature on Wanna Waffle.
Nothing odd until midway down the first page, where a celebrity gossip blog called K-Star News had posted about the ‘suspicious’ and ‘concerning’ relationship between Apollo and ‘unqualified’ manager Denny Han.
She clicked the link, heart in her throat.
This brought her to a clip of Denny shouting at Apollo to go back to their rooms, embedded in a nine-minute YouTube monologue.
Posted two hours ago, it theorized that the guys had been locked up in their hotel and may still be locked up right now, practically held hostage by their manager.
Denny Han was a greedy and abusive opportunist. He’d befriended Ari just to use him as the mascot for a failing restaurant.
According to the comments on that video, Denny’s sister was no better. Emma Han had used Apollo to stage a comeback from ‘the place where washed up Insta girlies go to die.’ No such thing as a decent influencer, fans and random Internet bystanders proclaimed. Influencers were the scum of the earth.
On Reddit: Emma Han was cold as ice, rolling around town looking for a new salon while Apollo paid for the damages at her family’s lame cafe. She would’ve been jobless without Ari and Apollo.
And on Star-Connect: That restaurant shouldn’t be allowed to reopen. The owners deserve to go bankrupt for leeching off Apollo like this. Did you see how they covered the place in pictures of the boys? These people will do anything to make a buck.
Countless strangers brainstormed how to close Wanna Waffle for good.
They could bomb it with bad reviews, report the business as fraudulent, petition Emerald Entertainment to sue.
Some even claimed to live in the neighborhood, testifying that the place had gone downhill since June.
We’ve had brunch there every Sunday for five years now.
Thought they were a great family, but now they’ve gotten greedy. We won’t be coming back.
That hurt so badly that Jiyeon had to stop for a second. But the next comment was even worse: What were you guys expecting? The manager’s a thug. I bet he bullied Apollo into hiring him, it’s not like he’s got any industry experience.
“Stay with Apollo,” Eric told Denny, that terrible morning after the wedding.
He’d banked on her brother’s loyalty, the unspoken affection woven into every terse command.
He’d pressured Denny to stay because he needed it for the optics.
And who would have that footage from Sunday, if not Prism?
Who else would be able to post about Jiyeon touring salons when she hadn’t even posted about it herself? That had to come from Prism, too.
This was Eric’s grand scheme coming together, his narrative progressing as planned.
He’d outmaneuvered them completely. And he wasn’t done, she realized.
That cleaning crew would arrive tomorrow, giving Prism fresh fodder for the official storyline.
Apollo was virtuous. Apollo was doing everything they could, and if they fell apart, only predatory outsiders were to blame.
Objectively, it was a job well done. She’d give Eric a medal if she didn’t despise him.
Jeannie took the phone away. “Denny’s not a thug.
They’re lying. We can’t let them keep doing that.
” She was really crying now. “Uncle and Auntie said not to come get you, ‘cause you’re sad and you're tired, but we have to fight.
So I'm here, and I’ll fight too. I'll go bring the boss back if you want.
He has to listen to me ‘cause he’s named after my Uncle Dennis.
I have rights. And I hate driving, I've asked for a chauffeur every Christmas since I was four, whatever, but I'll drive.” Sobbing, she said, “We have to do something. No, I have to do something. This is a Code Violet.”
Lizzie and Joey crashed the scene, drawn by the invisible beacon of Jeannie’s distress. She cried even more at the sight of them. Eyes burning, Jiyeon got up and hugged her, hard. “We’ll fight. Just give me a minute, okay? I need to think. And then I need to call Eunjae.”
We’re pieces on a board.
That would be Eric’s mistake. She decided it then and there. She’d make him regret ever putting them on the board in the first place.