Chapter 39
When Jiyeon called, Eunjae had to leave the patio, unable to hear over Apollo shouting themselves into a deadlock. He needed to put distance between himself and the outbreak of total war.
“Can you guys be here tomorrow?” Jiyeon asked him, after explaining the situation. “Jeannie’s organizing a cleanup. We’ll have volunteers helping, but if you came with Denny, that would show fans that you’re still on good terms with your manager.”
Head spinning, Eunjae wandered to the edge of the property.
The valley was a bowl of tumbled stars. “Of course we'll be there,” he told her, although he couldn't be certain that his brothers were coming.
Eunjae didn't want to consider that eventuality, but so much of what he knew had been obliterated and rearranged.
Halfway to the cottage, while sorting through everything he'd need to say and do, he came upon Max and Jungwoo. They’d both gone searching for him. Unable to agree on who should do this, they didn’t make it very far.
“I’m the one who needs to talk to Ari,” Jungwoo argued.
“No shit you need to talk to him. Talk to hyung for an hour if you want, but I’m going first. He didn’t know about me. I didn’t tell him and then he had to find out at the wedding. I know that’s fucked up. I have to fix it.”
Eunjae jogged over to separate them. “Hyung,” said Max, startled. “We saw. Emma-noona sent some links.”
“Yeah. Faster that way. Can’t waste time.”
Eunjae grabbed both of his brothers, marching them back into the fray.
They needed to hurry. Every hour that went by was another hour of Prism building a fortress around Apollo, unassailable, shielded on every side.
The group would emerge with an ironclad reputation.
This protection would come at the expense of people they loved.
The night was clear and quiet, amplifying every sound. They’d gotten loud enough to summon their manager from the main house. That was Denny, demanding a ceasefire. The argument simmered for all of three seconds before reaching a boiling point again.
“We’ll talk more when this is over,” Eunjae said, “but I’m not mad. I think you should go with Emerald. Both of you.”
Jungwoo stumbled on the path. “What?”
He’d wanted to say it for days, but it never felt like the right time, and Eunjae had no speech prepared.
He did his best. “Hyung, sign with Emerald.
That's your dream. The real dream, the big one.
Don't turn it down just because of us, or Zenith, or anybody else. This is your chance, and it's Max’s chance, too. Take the offer and stop worrying about me.”
No reply. Eunjae had stunned them into silence. Finally, Jungwoo choked out, “I wish you’d yell at me. I wish you’d be mad instead.”
“Why the hell can’t you be mad?” Max had his hood pulled forward as far as it would go, and he stared at his shoes as he spoke. “Fuck. I hate agreeing with anything he says, but Jungwoo’s right. This would be easier if you’d just tell us to stay.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Why not? You fought so hard to get us away from Emerald. Why don’t you care? You should care the most.”
“I fought that contract so we could all be free,” said Eunjae, “and being free means getting to make choices for ourselves.”
Months ago, he'd realized that it would never be enough to break from Emerald on his own. Unless he earned freedom for all of them, the victory would be hollow. Now they could move forward, choosing paths that might not run precisely parallel. Those paths led somewhere beyond the horizon, to a place they couldn’t even see yet.
But in that place, they would meet again.
Until then, Eunjae needed his brothers to see that they were free to go, and grow, and keep on growing.
“It’s like our old table in the dining hall,” he said.
“This deal with Zenith, I mean. None of us thinks it’s great, but we keep putting up with it anyway.
We keep trying to stay together, even when it’s not working, because that’s what we know how to do.
We should stop. Staying together doesn’t mean that we have to stay the same. ”
“Hyung. Are you saying the nine of us are like some shitty table?”
Jungwoo had a hand pressed to his eyes. “The table. Yeah, I get it.” With a pained smile, he said, “I couldn’t let you leave, but you’ll do that for me? I just… I can’t stand you sometimes, Ari.”
“I can’t stand you,” said Max, easily triggered as always. He kicked at the gravel, face wet, arms crossed tight over his chest. “Fuck. This isn’t how it was supposed to go.”
“Doesn’t mean it won’t go well,” Eunjae replied. He twisted the fading elastic band on his wrist, always a comfort. “Come on. I think they called Jaehwan-hyung.”
He’d guessed correctly. That was their leader’s terrifying visage on the screen.
“Have you lost your minds? You can't go down there.
By all means, send Denny and tell Eric to get over it.
That's his family. That's his restaurant. But the eight of you are going to bed, and tomorrow you’ll be at the diner, no exceptions.”
“Hwannie, it's not right. We should be there to help out. It was our fault.”
“One, you don't get to call me Hwannie when I'm pissed at you. Two, you wouldn't be helping. You might even make it worse. What if Sunshines show up looking for you?”
Jaehwan waited, standing in the shade outside the government office building where he fulfilled the terms of his mandatory military service. None of the members had an answer for him, but Ezra blurted out, “Give your dumb fans a broom.”
“Why's this one still awake? Don't kids have bedtimes anymore?”
“I'm fourteen, not four. Why would my bedtime be 8:02pm?”
Eunjae hustled Ezra into the cottage, asked him to please stay put for ten minutes, and shoved a random book into his hands.
Then he rushed back to say, “Jaehwan-hyung, I have to be there.
Denny and his family were kind to me. They've been kind to everyone I've brought to their door, no questions asked.”
Denny lifted a brow. “I had questions.”
“Ah, right. Sorry about that.”
“I still have questions.”
Eunjae started over. “Even when they had questions,” he amended, “they were kind to me anyway. I love them. I love Wanna Waffle. So I’m going, and I'm really sorry, hyung, but I can’t listen to you this time.
I’m sorry to cause more trouble. I’ll sincerely reflect on the consequences of my actions. ”
The apologies rolled right off his tongue. Jaehwan regarded him with confusion. Despite knowing this was the equivalent of signing his own death warrant, Eunjae reached over and ended the call, hanging up on someone for the first time in his life.
His brothers stared at him, flabbergasted. Eunjae kept going. Otherwise, he’d crumble like a house of cards, call Jaehwan back, and beg for his miserable life.
“I’m going tomorrow. You don’t have to come with me, but I think you should.”
Right away, Kazu said, “I’m going.” Lowering his voice, he added, “Don’t worry about Hwannie. I’ll buy him another Baskin Robbins franchise.”
“Bribery,” hissed Kei. “Disgusting.” He didn’t opt out of going to Wanna Waffle, though, and neither did anyone else.
They had a contract in jeopardy and a pile of unanswered questions about their future, but they could agree on being there in person.
They could also agree that Eunjae was a dead man for hanging up on leader-nim when they’d already interrupted his lunch break, but that was a problem for later.
Eunjae turned to Denny next. “Go ahead and leave tonight. Max can drive us in the morning.”
“Nah. No telling what Eric’s gonna do when he realizes I'm gone.”
“Boss, we know you want to go.”
“Aww, man,” Namgyu said. “If you won't leave, we'll have to make you!”
“Yeah?” Denny replied, nostrils flaring. “And what's the plan there, pal? Kidnapping? Extortion? You take me down with the power of harmonious song?”
“Ha! Imagine if I knew how to do that, I could be so strong, I’d be the strongest—”
Keen to examine the scale of Prism’s campaign, Nicky had been scrolling that whole time.
He came up for air just long enough to say, “Listen, Chief.
If we drive down together, it'll look like you forced us to go.
But if you leave first and we come later, it reads like we followed you out of loyalty.
Eric can't say we’re prisoners. That's better narrative positioning.” A big grin.
“Don't you love the Prism handbook? I love the Prism handbook.”
It was a strong argument. Eunjae capitalized on the momentum. “Go home, Denny,” he said. “You're fired.”
His brothers’ mortification warranted a matching mushroom cloud, curling over the detonation point in a column of dust and debris. They were beyond appalled. First Jaehwan, and now Denny? He’d gone insane.
“You’re fired,” Eunjae said again. “We’re letting you go.
You’re not tied to us anymore, and you didn’t quit, so you’re not obligated to the agency.
They can only hit you with legal if you quit.
” He took a deep breath, heart threatening to slam right out of his chest. “And since we terminated your employment, we owe you severance. That’s what the contract says. ”
Nicky hooted with delight. “You’re doing this again? You got off on a technicality one time and now it’s your signature move? This is my boy, this is my one true son—”
That was the only positive reaction. The others instructed him to grovel at Denny’s feet without delay.
When he refused to budge, not even Max could take it.
“Did you hit your head? You wouldn’t be like this if you weren’t fucking concussed.
I’m driving you to the hospital or whatever they have in this weird little murder town. ”
“I still don’t understand why you think this is a murder town,” mumbled Jungwoo.
“You don’t understand anything. I can’t believe I’m stuck with you. I can’t believe I’m actively choosing to be stuck with you for the next two years—”
Kei sat bolt upright on his bench. “Wait, you’re both going? What about Zenith? What about the contract?”
“It’s a murder town,” Max maintained, ignoring him. “You get stuck in a place like this and it’s automatically a horror movie. It’s too cute. It’s too nice. That’s suspicious as hell and I’ve been saying this since July.”
“Ari-hyung will be in jail stripes forever,” Jesse wailed. “I never thought I’d live to see this, I never even thought it was possible—”
Eunjae turned his back on the madness. “Thanks for everything, Den. We’ll never be able to replace you, and I don’t know how we’ll keep going without you, but this is it. Mission complete. Go home.”
He braced himself for the worst, but Denny reached out to shake his hand. The noise died down. “Mission complete,” their former manager replied. His scowl had unfurled into a smile. “See you tomorrow, Ryan.”