Shrugging, Ezra pulled Eunjae to the cottage. Cameras were aimed at the patio and rigged inside the kitchen. The producers wanted to recreate a scene from the first season ofSunshine 24/7, still a fan favorite two years after it aired.
Inside, Max stood at the kitchen counter, holding up a bag of marshmallows like the plastic was porous and the contents were a fast-acting poison. “What is this? What the hell did you buy?”
“I bought marshmallows!” Kazu exclaimed. “That's what you told me to buy!”
Rather than berating him, Max focused his ire on Eunjae. “Why did you let him buy the wrong marshmallows? What are we supposed to do with these? They're tiny, we'd need a million of them. And how are we supposed to roast these on a stick?”
“Ah, sorry,” said Eunjae. “The jumbo marshmallows weren't on sale. Hyung bought double of the mini marshmallows instead.”
No further explanation was necessary. Max groaned and went back to unpacking the spoils of their grocery run. Discounted spoils, brought down to a fabulously low price using coupons and a borrowed Lowell’s rewards card. Jiyeon's was tied to her phone number, and Eunjae had the number memorized.
“I’m leaving if you bought the wrong ass graham crackers, too.”
“No, those are right. I put them in the cart while he wasn't looking.”
“Edit that out,” said Eric, making notations on his tablet. “We can’t have any mention of leaving. It’s unity, unity, unity. That’s our message now and it’ll still be our message when people are streaming this in January. Try it again, Max.”
So they ran it a second time, grasping at the spontaneity of the first and falling short. Afterward, Kazu explained the dessert menu to Ezra. The dog capered at his feet. Momo had a massive blue bow around her neck, almost the same blue as the hand-glazed tile on the backsplash. Wait, wasn't her name Cosmos now? Jiyeon had posted about Apollo’s dog while they were in Tokyo. Sunshines sent names from every corner of the world.
“We’re making s’nores. We made them on that last tour, before Hwannie left.”
“S’mores,”Max corrected him. “Goddamn, hyung.”
They assembled ingredients and stacks of plates, learning why these smaller marshmallows were inferior to larger marshmallows. Minis wouldn't roast evenly. You'd have to use a ton just to cover the full surface area of the graham cracker, not to mention the issue of how to melt them over the fire without charring everything else. And that signature gooey texture? You needed jumbo for that.
This lesson on the art of making s’mores came courtesy of Nicky, with additional highly opinionated commentary by Max. The idea of making them in the microwave was Kei’s contribution. Brothers booed him away from the fire pit. But in the end, they didn’t make the food themselves. At Eric’s insistence, the production prepared a tray in advance. All they had to do was eat. No more bickering. Nothing but unity, unity, unity. And that was it for the day, filming complete.
“Aww, let’s make s’nores for real,” Namgyu said, brokering a truce. Fragile and tenuous as a soap bubble, but a truce nonetheless. Jungwoo stuck around with his guitar. Eunjae invited Denny and received no response.
“Do we really have to use that?” Kei persisted, balking at the fire. “It makes my clothes smell like smoke. The smoke gets in my hair and then I have to wash it. Gyu hogs the bathroom, so then I have to wait, meaning I need to stay up later, and I won't get enough sleep, so then I'll be tired on set tomorrow—”
Ezra studied Kei’s face like it would show up on a final exam. “You're the one who wears black,” he said, “and you hate it here. You say that as much as the Max guy says he's faking his own death.”
“I do hate it here.”
A blank-eyed stare. “So leave.”
Kazu heard this and prodded Eunjae with his elbow. “Ya. Who taught this kid to be so rude?”
“Hear me out,” said Nicky, producing a lighter. “I've got a theory about this. Siblings tend to be opposites, right? Jungwoo's the only musical one out of five kids. Max’s sisters are total babes and Max is a big, giant baby—”
“You can fuck right off, hyung.”
“Oh, and Actual Ari keeps his rude thoughts up here, in his head, but Aspiring Ari says them out loud.”
“Don’t call me that!”
“Ooh, my apologies, Ari the Younger.”
“Stop.”
“Anything for you, Wannabe Ari—”
Suddenly, the fire was blazing. The lighter vanished up Nicky's sleeve and Eunjae shook it out. “Quit, hyung.” But it was better this way, with their voices warming the crisp air, and no cameras locked in orbit around them. He preferredNicky laughing to Nicky gone cold and remote. He preferred Kei complaining to Kei saying nothing, defeated and withdrawn.
The light faded, along with the chatter on the patio. Max scurried inside for blankets, his hoodie, another jacket. “So what are we doing?” Jesse asked, in a small voice. He sat squashed between older brothers, the dog tucked inside his shirt so she wouldn’t get cold.
Ezra looked up from his homework. “You guys stopped fighting after you made these marshmallow things, last time.”
