42. Chapter 42
Eunjae had no idea how Jiyeon contrived to find parking, but she did. They got out and navigated the rest of the way on foot, weaving through the crowd at a jog whenever possible.
“Where are the others?” Jiyeon called to him.
“Not sure. I got Max for a minute but then the signal cut out.”
“Let’s just keep going. I have a key, maybe the back door? We can take this street all the way there. Then you could just cut through the shop.”
It was worth a try. They certainly wouldn’t make much headway from any other direction. Wanna Waffle’s front door was beyond their reach, cordoned off behind a veritable wall of Emerald Entertainment security guards, barriers, and bright green tape.
In the shopping center parking lot, Eunjae sighted a temporary stage that had been built for the event. This, too, was on the other side of the barrier. Apollo songs thumped from the speakers: Blame it on Me, Win/Win, Trickster. The first wave of fans had been rewarded for showing up so early. Their prize was being allowed to vie for space in the audience, standing room only. Strangely, there wasn’t much of a festive air to the proceedings. If anything, there was an air of confusion. Did you see it? The boys posted a video. Do you think they’ll really show up? And then: Do you think they’ve been kidnapped???
Even from one street removed, Eunjae knew it when the event began in earnest. There was a perceptible shift in energy, an electric thrill that seemed to brighten the night by degrees. Namgyu’s verse in Never Too Late faded out midway through, ceding the airwaves to a song that didn’t belong to Apollo. Eunjae recognized it as Secret Garden — a song by Jewell.
So the founders were here, then. Once again, they’d come to deal with Eunjae in person.
Jiyeon grabbed his arm as a golf cart came screeching to a halt alongside them. He expected to find an Emerald staffer at the wheel, maybe even one of Apollo’s managers. Instead, it was Denny.
“Finally!” he bellowed at them, somehow looking just like the Emerald security guards in his appropriated green polo and black slacks. He even had an earpiece to go with the radio at his hip. A very official looking name badge dangled from the lanyard around his neck.
As they climbed into the golf cart at Denny’s express urging, Jiyeon hissed, “Where did you get that uniform? And don’t you dare use the word ‘resources’ or I’ll teach Eunjae how to make the secret waffle batter. I”ll give him a written copy and everything.”
“You wouldn’t!” Denny hissed back. “Stop distracting me from the mission!” He maneuvered around a small horde of Sunshines clad in oversized t-shirts screen-printed with Nick’s face. All of them were crying. They scurried out of the way as Denny honked the horn to oblivion. “You and your brothers,” Denny ranted at Eunjae, “should be classified as a natural disaster. This area is a wreck. The blast radius is at least two miles out in all directions.”
“Do you know where they are?”
“Waiting for you. Don”t worry, I handled it. We”re going there right now.” He then turned his attention back to Jiyeon. “And you! Why are you here? Your follower count’s gone past two mil, thanks to the Apollo posts. If anyone sees you here, that”s it.”
Jiyeon flinched at the news. “That was fast.”
“I told you this was gonna happen. You should”ve dropped Ryan off and gone back home.”
“I couldn”t do that.” Poking her brother between the shoulder blades, Jiyeon said, “Molly Merriweather would tell me to see it through to the end.”
“Molly Merriweather would tell you that wearing a hat doesn’t count as a disguise,” Denny replied tersely. “Switch me when we get to the back lot. I’ll go with him from there.”
Scattered applause reached them on the breeze. Denny powered up a ramp and onto the sidewalk, then tore right across a patch of grass to reach the parking area behind Wanna Waffle. This was blocked off as well, but instead of Emerald security guards, three police cruisers barred access, lights strobing red and blue. This was the only reason why the crowd had failed to invade the space.
“You really did get a police escort,” marveled Eunjae. He could see figures inside each SUV, some maniacally waving at him. This solved the mystery of where Denny had stashed the other members of Apollo.
“We cater the precinct’s annual holiday breakfast. Waffles are the currency of power.” Denny pointed at his sister. “Get going. I promise I”ll get them out after.”
From inside one of the police cruisers, an excited voice could be heard asking, “Does anyone else feel like they”re in a Tom Cruise movie?”
Jiyeon came around to assume Denny”s place at the wheel. “I thought golf carts couldn’t go any faster than twenty miles per hour,” she remarked. “Didn’t this move super fast, to you?”
“Custom job, I bet. I’m sure Denny knows a guy.”
“I’m sure he does, too.” She climbed in again, eyeing the gas pedal warily. “Don’t tell him that I’m coming back.”
“Hey, no. Don’t do that.”
They”d both heard the chatter as they pushed their way through the crowd, certain words repeated and amplified. The people were talking about Apollo, of course, but the conversations also bubbled over with speculation about her.
Maybe it was just his own hunger to know more, but every mention of her seemed to stand out clearer, reach him sooner. Emma, Emma, Emma, Eunjae had picked up again and again. The one with the cute hair videos. I didn’t know she was a fan. Pretty unnie who does the breakup haircuts, you remember her. Didn”t she work with a bunch of actresses? Where”s she been all this time? How does she know the boys? Probably an attention grab. I hope she posts again and tells us what’s going on.
He worried that this was already starting to get to her. She”d grown subdued after that update on her exploding follower count. But just for a moment, Jiyeon reached over to give his hand a squeeze. Eunjae could almost pretend that nothing had changed.
“I’ll be there,” she said to him. “I’m seeing this through to the end.”
“I owe you a fourth song, then.”
Jiyeon just smiled at him from beneath the brim of her baseball cap. Then she was off, and the others spilled out of the cruisers to congregate at the shop’s back door.
Eunjae hurried to catch up. Denny had just finished lecturing the members of Apollo against foolishly touching the gong on the counter, as there would bedire consequences. “Sorry I couldn’t buy you more time,” he said to Eunjae, letting him into the shop, “but I did sabotage the audio equipment. Had some help from that guy over there. The one who came to get you last time. How many freaking brothers do you have?”
It was the equivalent of a dunk in frigid sea water. “Eight,” answered Eunjae, already dashing for the adjacent room. Three steps ahead of him, Max launched himself at Jungwoo and had to be restrained by both Namgyu and Nick.
“You! It was you who told them we’d be here! That’s why they started it early! What the fuck is wrong with you? You said that you wouldn’t help them!”
“Max, let him go. MAX!”
Jungwoo rubbed at the spot on his jaw where Max had managed to land a punch. He locked eyes with Eunjae. “I did tell them. I said you’d probably come here and you wouldn’t wait until morning once you saw what they’d done. Thankfully I guessed right. We have to end this tonight, Ari. We needed to end it an hour ago but I couldn’t reach any of you. Haewon had my phone taken away as soon as I got back to Seoul. I had to just hope that you’d realize what was going on.”
He hauled Eunjae over to the window. Through the barest gap in the blinds, Eunjae saw a sea of grief-stricken faces. The oddness he’d noticed all night suddenly made terrible sense — the crowd being so subdued, all those groups of Sunshines crying with their arms around each other. He’d pushed his suspicions aside because half the audience always seemed to be in tears at Apollo events. Tears of happiness, tears brought on by euphoria. Eunjae hadn’t even considered that the fans might be crying out of sorrow.
“They’ve disbanded us,” said Jungwoo, his voice ringing hollow in Eunjae’s ears. “Haewon and Soyeon were going to announce it on stage, but the microphones weren’t working. My guess is that it rolled out on social media while the crew was trying to figure out the audio issues. All that’s left is to march everyone out there and make us say goodbye.”
“But they can’t do that!” Eunjae felt like he’d taken the punch instead of Jungwoo. “I didn’t break my contract. I told them I was staying.”
“Ari, they’re furious with you. You’ve run away twice now.”
“That doesn’t matter. I could run away again and Emerald still wouldn’t retain the right to just disband us out of the blue. I’ve read that contract a thousand times. They can only do that under the penalty clause, and the only way for us to trigger the penalty clause is for someone to break contract.”
Kazu spoke up from the other side of the room. “Then maybe they haven’t disbanded us. You don’t know that for sure, right? Whatever they planned to say up there, they haven’t gotten to say it yet.”
“It’s a disbandment. Why else would the fans be that upset? Look at them.”
“A good guess, Jungwoo, but not exactly right.”
Haewon came through the orange door with Soyeon close behind her. They were dressed for their stage appearance in coordinating outfits of brilliant, blazing white. Emeralds glittered at their wrists and throats. Soyeon’s necklace was studded with gems so large and so close together that the piece brought to mind a jeweled collar. Armor, Eunjae thought. And here he’d shown up as his plain, vulnerable self.
“We haven’t disbanded Apollo,” Soyeon said dully. “Your fans have simply assumed that a disbandment is forthcoming.”
They were treated to Haewon’s frosty smile. “What else can they expect? It”s only logical now that Ari’s contract has been terminated.”