“Gross! I never said that!”
“You did say it, and you were right.”
Max’s brown eyes were ablaze. “I won’t forgive him. I don’t care if I was right.”
“I’m glad you’re around to be mad enough for both of us. Because you do care — you care so much. I hope you never stop.”
“Oh, what the hell, hyung? I’m not crying at this airport. I’ve never cried at an airport even one time and I won’t start now.”
“I’ll cry, then. I’m fine with it.” Eunjae hooked an arm around his brother’s neck. “My life is so much better because you care about me, Max. Sorry I haven’t told you enough.”
“Gross!” But Max returned the half hug with bone-crushing force. Then he squirmed away, flopped back down, and returned to the crossword. Muted sniffling came from the depths of the hood pulled over his head. “Greek goddess of victory. Four letters.”
“Too easy,” said Jesse, hurrying over to them with a casual tonnage of snacks. “It’s ‘Nike’. Like the brand. And, um, I think we’re in trouble.”
“Duh, Jess. We’ve been in trouble for days now. And Ari’s been in trouble for like two weeks straight. Big deal.”
“This is new trouble. Here, hyung.” Jesse already had his phone out. He showed it to Eunjae, rapidly swiping between screenshots.
At first he thought the fatigue had finally done him in. Each of Jesse’s screenshots looked almost the same. He tried blinking again, even removing his glasses and glaring until the pixels came into proper focus, but it wasn’t the hallucination he was praying for.
Max sat up again. “Shit. Aren’t those…?”
“Yeah. They got us.”
These were Apollo’s personal Instagram accounts. Eight of the nine members had their own. The only exception was Nick, who mainly used his phone as a vehicle for gossip. It had taken years for them to be allowed their own accounts. Now, each of these had been reduced to just one post, all their photos and videos archived or perhaps even outright deleted.
Everyone’s grid showed a simple emerald green square. The agency had taken over their social media.
“We had to use company email addresses to sign up for these. Should’ve thought to go in and change everything before we escaped.”
“What about the main account? The one for the whole group?”
“It’s got a green square on it, too. Sunshines are posting conspiracy theories already.”
Max scowled. “I assumed they’d take that one away from us. Not the personal ones, though. Damn.”
“What will we do now, hyung? This makes it a lot harder to get our message across.”
Eunjae didn’t have an answer ready for that, but he wasn’t about to give up yet, either. “It’s fine,” he told his younger brothers. “We’ll figure it out. Let’s just try to get where we’re going.”
“Yeah,” said Jesse, plopping down beside him. “And we won’t let them win!”
“You’re right. We won’t.”
Text messages between Song Eunjae and Denny Han
Denny- Ryan. What's the fastest you've ever run a mile?
Eunjae- 5 or 6 mins?
Denny- Passable. Under duress, do you think you could successfully pilot a plane through an emergency landing?
Eunjae- Wait what
Denny- If all hell breaks loose
Denny- Do you think
