“No, my dear. I know you’ve had a long day. My niece is here so I'm not alone. You better eat your dinner, you hear?”
Emma smiled ruefully, “All right. And you don’t need to come in early tomorrow. I'll handle everything over here.”
“Are you sure?” Maria’s soft voice floated to Emma.
“Uh huh, I can handle it all. Now, just keep her company and try to get some rest.”
“All right, my dear, I'll see you tomorrow.”
“Good night, Maria.”
Emma hung up and set her phone on the island. The microwave dinged just then and she hurried to it to retrieve her dinner.
Chapter Ten
Xavion and the three other members of YNO bowed and turned their backs on the cheering crowd. They hurried off the concert stage, leaving behind the flashing lights and cheering of their fans. Xavion stormed straight to the dressing room of the fifth and youngest member of the group, the one who had been absent from the last concert of their tour – Kai.
Xavion rolled a pair of brown eyes as he walked further into the room. Kai was curled up on the sofa, his black bangs falling over his face. Xavion hit his shoulder and he blinked awake.
“Sunbae!” Kai cried.
“Have you slept long enough? Do you want me to hit you again?” Xavion glared at the twenty-two year old.
Kai pouted as he sat up. He looked up at the annoyed faces of the others but Xavion who was crouching beside him was the angriest and why would he not be? He was the oldest and the leader of the group. The responsibility of seeing that their K-pop group ran smoothly was on his shoulders more than any other member of the group. And soon, when the managers called, it was him who was going to have to listen to all they had to say on behalf of Kai.
“I’m sorry,” Kai said as he lowered his head.
Xavion sighed and he sat beside Kai on the sofa. “How is your stomach?”
“I feel better now, sunbae,” Kai muttered. “How was the concert?”
“Very good, no thanks to you,” Chan grunted.
Kai had spent all of the previous night and that day drinking and partying all over Austin, choosing to ignore the fact that they had their last performance of their USA tour that night, ignoring Xavion’s warnings. When it was time for them to head on to the stage, he was already terribly sick and kept throwing up.
“Still throwing up?” Zane asked.
Kai nodded as he said, “I did about ten minutes ago.”
“Well it is a good thing you did not come out with us, imagine you projectile vomiting while we were performing. Now, that would have been an internet sensation,” Lay said, grinning from ear to ear.
“And as usual Xavion would have had to answer for it,” Zane said sternly, staring at Lay. Lay’s smile slipped. Xavion and Zane were best friends and had been since they were little boys and the friends always had each other’s backs. Zane knew his friend would bear the brunt of the blame and so, he did not find Lay’s joke funny.
Xavion sighed and he stood up, “Come on, let’s get our stuff together and head back to the hotel.”
“It’s time for a vacation. I cannot believe the tour is over. Now I miss it...” Lay was saying.
“Not everyone here deserves a vacation,” Chan said as he walked out of the room.
Xavion stayed behind as the others left. As soon as they were gone, he said to Kai, “Come on, throw on your coat and let’s get you back to the hotel. You need to drink lots of fluids to make up all you have lost.”
“I am really sorry, sunbae.”
Xavion ran a tired hand through his brown hair. “I really don’t know what to tell you, Kai. You’ve always been a party animal, that we have accepted and your carelessness has certainly made the waves lots of times but to get so wasted that you cannot even perform? This is the last I expected from you, I thought you were wiser than that. Anyway, what’s done is done. There is no use apologizing if you are not going to change your ways and are only going to continue being a train wreck, now is there?”
“I really won’t, sunbae!”
“You say so now but do you really think that you are not a tabloid article waiting to happen?” Xavion asked, looking pointedly at Kai. Kai stared back and finally, lowered his head. He and Xavion both knew that he could not answer the question honestly. “I thought as much. Come on, let’s get out of here.”
