“When I grow up, I wanna be a total goner like hyung.”
Eunjae dropped Jiyeon’s hand like it was made of molten mercury. Just in time, too, because Denny's voice boomed down the hall in a tidal wave of sound. “Who left the fridge open? Do all ninety of you share one brain cell that you pass around every five minutes?”
This swiftly flushed all of Eunjae's brothers from their hiding places, triggering some primal instinct that counseled survival. They scrambled back to the living room and Jiyeon watched them go, biting her lip to keep from laughing.
“Ready? I'll pick out what we need from this box over here if you'll get the other one.”
Silently, Eunjae went over the reasons why he'd invited his brothers to come here with him. All of these reasons seemed very, very foolish now.
“Yeah,” he said, shrugging his jacket off and tossing it on the bed. “I'll be right there.”
41
“Wasthateverything?Didwe say it all?”
In his head, Eunjae paced through the recording they’d just made. He replied, “We talked about the contract — penalty clause, disbandment, copyright. Jesse got us some comparison contracts from other idols, anonymously. Nicky covered how much of our work Emerald will keep if they force us to disband. Kei did the part about current South Korean laws governing contracts and Max, uh, complained really well about our schedule over the past few years under Yoon.”
“It’s fucked up, okay?”
“Don’t forget that I looked up all that stuff about Jewell!”
“Good job, Gyu,” said Kei. “You listened to a podcast like a champ.”
“It’s a great podcast!Omma Gosh, that’s what it’s called. They know a lot about us! They even knew about that time I got lost in Vegas. Haha!”
“You mean the time you wandered off at Caesar’s Palace and a bunch of Sunshines mobbed you at the fake Roman fountain? Cause I still have nightmares about that.”
“Aww, Keiichi looked for meeverywhere.”
“I’m just really glad Zuzu remembered to bring Mom,” Jesse chimed in. He smiled fondly at the prop he held in his hands. This was a life-sized photo of Jaehwan’s head, backed with cardboard and mounted on a popsicle stick like a mask to be worn at a grade school play.
“Of course I brought Hwannie. This is war.” Kazu unfolded his legs and got up from the couch, swatting Kei for commenting about how loudly his knees cracked in the process. “The Internet seems to think this thing’s happening in the morning. There’s no specific time listed on anything the agency’s posted to official channels, but the fans could be right.”
“I hope the fans are right. I can’t brain anymore. I’m too tired.”
Eunjae chose this moment to share the next phase of the plan, something he’d discussed with Denny and Jiyeon while they were setting up for the livestream. “I don’t think we should wait until morning,” he said. “The fans are already lined up and waiting. If we go there now, maybe we can beat Emerald to the punch, talk to the audience directly. We can make sure they know everything we said in the video was real.”
“Now?” sputtered Nick. “But I look like garbage!”
“Calm down, Nicky. We all look like garbage. I mean, especially you.”
“You know what’s annoying? Zuzu doesn’t look like garbage. Funny how it turns out that way when he remembers to wear a full set of clothes…”
“Ya! I could show up naked and still look better than you,” Kazu shot back, sparking an argument with Kei that was conducted entirely in Japanese.
“Waaaah! Stop fighting!”
“You all look like heroes!” declared Mrs. Han. She swept into the room, clapped her hands, and went to fetch car keys. “Now, men! To battle!”
A flabbergasted Denny grabbed his own keys and headed for the door, towing Mr. Han along with him. “Jesus, where'd she get that from? That's not a line fromPride and Prejudice.”
“But it could be,” Jiyeon pointed out.
The members of Apollo went pelting out of the apartment. Eunjae rushed to steer both Max and Kazu away from Mrs. Han and the Camaro.
“We’re riding with Denny,” he informed them, recalling that Lizzie Han’s driving would fit right in on the streets of Monaco during an F1 grand prix. Not a good match for the two Apollo members who habitually carried barf bags in their carry-on luggage.
His brothers reached the same understanding when the Camaro zipped out of the parking lot at warp speed, Jesse hooting from the passenger seat. In the back, Namgyu had his arms up like a rider anticipating the first impossibly steep drop on a rollercoaster.
