EunjaeexpectedDennytosteer him in the direction of the CEO’s office. Instead, they stopped at a door he’d never had cause to open before, painted black and labeled EXECUTIVE LOUNGE.
Inside was a cozier version of the main lobby. The same dark wood paneled the walls, polished smooth as glass. Rugs covered the herringbone pattern on the floor, and on the largest of these, a frazzled intern sat with his legs crossed. Two little girls stretched out beside him, arms working and legs pumping. Eunjae hesitated on the threshold, feeling like he’d stumbled into some kind of New Age aerobics class.
“It’s so boring here,” whined the older of the two; she looked to be about five or six. Her leg struck out, aiming for the intern’s unprotected ribs. But Denny was there in a flash, blocking the child’s foot with his hand.
“None of that.” He sat back on his heels, solid and immovable as a boulder. “Sloppiest kick I’ve ever seen. Youcan do better.” Denny scooped up a tiny, discarded shoe. He returned this to its owner, then sat and stared until it was restored to the correct foot. “Here,” he said then, motioning for the girls to stand up. “Let’s fix your form. You want one foot in front, like this. Hands up. Yep, like that. Fighting stance.”
The intern was understandably alarmed. “Are you teaching them how to kick me…?”
“Cool it, Hwang. You’ll only get kicked if you don’t dodge.” Denny went back to teaching. “Now, take a step back. Your foot needs to go from here to here. And turn your shoulders a little, put some power into that spin.”
“We’re spinning?”
“Mr. Police Guy, this is a spinning kick?”
“Right now it’s a talking kick,” came the reply, stone-faced, no inflection. “You wanna learn or not? I don’t have all day. That guy doesn’t know how to do this either.”
The children gazed up at Eunjae. “Ajussi, you don’t know about kicking?” giggled the younger. “Didn’t you learn anything in school?”
“It’s been a long time, and I didn’t go to normal school.”
“But where did you go to school?”
“Here. This was my school.”
“This isn’t a school,” the older girl informed him right away. “This is Mommy’s company. Do you know Mommy? Her name is Soyeon. She works at this office with Auntie. They make songs and stuff.”
“I do know her. And I learned how to make songs here, but we didn’t, ah, learn how to kick.”
This triggered some loud whispering in Denny’s ear. “Ajussi learned how to be pretty.”
“And you’ll know more about basic combat than he does. Think about that for a second.”
Solemnly, the younger girl asked, “Can you teach him, too?”
And this was how Eunjae found himself learning how to deliver a proper windmill kick. When the lesson concluded, he stood at the window with Soyeon’s daughters, waiting for the founders to arrive. Behind them, Denny gave Intern Hwang a crash course on keeping small children entertained with minimal resources: dos, don’ts, and key phrases for de-escalation.
Time ticked by and the cheerful patter of the girls’ voices melted into the background. Clouds scudded across a sky that couldn’t decide whether it wanted to be stormy or serene. Eunjae looked down at the place that had been his home since he was fourteen years old. The lounge boasted a panoramic view of the Emerald Entertainment complex. Comprising three separate buildings, only one had been around when the members of Apollo were recruited.
We helped them build this, he thought to himself. The second group to debut under Emerald, and the first boy group the label ever launched, Apollo had been there for every step of the agency’s growth so far. But those days were done. Soon there would be parts of Emerald’s history that Apollo never touched.
Finally, the founders arrived in a swirl of expensive perfume. The girls went to their mother as soon as they saw her. “Dad’s waiting for you in the parking garage,” Soyeon said, “so grab your backpacks and get going. I'll see you when I get home.” She kissed each of them on the cheek. “Thanks for being so good today. I think you had some help, but everybody needs help sometimes.”
“You need to help the pretty ajussi.”
“Mommy, how come you didn’t teach him more?” they heard the eldest complain, even as Soyeon led her out to the hall. “He needs to know lots of other stuff, too. Like, you gotta hit with your heel and not your toes. And you never do the spin with your eyes closed!”
She provided a brief demonstration. Denny saluted her.
“We kick to stay safe from bad people. That’s what the police guy taught us.”
“The police guy…?” murmured Haewon, listening to this exchange. Meanwhile, Eunjae took a seat, grappling with a renewed sense of foreboding. Why had they called him here? What did they need to say, and why couldn't it be said later, at a meeting that was important enough to upend multiple schedules? It couldn't possibly be good. He knew this for a fact when Soyeon asked Denny to stay as well.
“Me?”
“Yes, please.” While Denny sat down next to Eunjae, Soyeon set her laptop on the coffee table. “I'm sorry you had to wait. Our last meeting went too long, and of course it’s been crazy at home, too. I had to bring the girls with me today. Thanks for being so patient with them.”
She pulled up a file. Haewon took over in the stiff, detached tone she always used with Eunjae and his brothers nowadays. “Prism should be in touch very soon. We’ve cleared everything on our end and Zenith is done reviewing the terms as well. Wise of you to request image management from a third party, but your choice was a surprise. They’re known for being very… strict.”
