Page 92

Robin made a light laugh. It sounded sweet to Jun’s ears. “You’re not dumb, Connor. You managed to follow my directions through the phone.”

“That’s because you explained it well. I learned from a great teacher.” When he heard Robin laugh again, he found himself smiling. Then a thought came to him. “By the way, I’ve been meaning to ask.”

“Hmm?”

“How did you know how to use the bar? Have you used it before?”

“No.” The word came fast—almost too fast. A beat of silence. “Sorry. I haven’t. I just… know how they work.”

“Then how did you know?” Jun asked again carefully. “Didn’t you say you haven’t seen it before—”

A knock rapped on Jun’s window. A clean-shaven Covey waved through the glass, hair slicked back, dressed in his tawny suit.

A huge difference from ten minutes ago.

“I got to go,” Jun said into the phone and shoved it back into his pants.

He unlocked the door, and Covey got in the passenger seat. “You weren’t waiting too long, right?” he asked, as if trying to make light of the conversation. His hands were still jittery as he fastened his seat belt.

“No,” said Jun. He drove the car towards the iron gates and waited for them to swing open onto the main road.

Covey nodded, staring out of the window as the car crawled onto the street. The trees along the road three bands of light and shadow across the car. They were the only car on the residential road. The silence between them stretched longer than the drive, heavy and untouchable, until Jun reached the bottom of the mountain and stopped at a red light.

“Is everything alright?” he asked hoarsely, trying not to sound nervous or rude.

Covey jumped, almost hitting the ceiling. “Yeah? Why wouldn’t it be?”

Jun shrugged. “I don’t know. Like are you nervous or something? You didn’t get enough sleep because of the taping today?”

Covey laughed. “Why would I be nervous? I’ve done this a million times.”

The light turned green, and they continued down the road. When they reached the entrance to the freeway, Jun spoke again, “Well, you were looking for your bar earlier, so I gave you the one I had. I mean you seem a lot better now after you took a hit.”

Covey didn’t look at him. For a man who usually pinned Jun with that steady, unreadable stare, his gaze was fixed on the road—distant, somewhere Jun couldn’t follow. Covey whispered, “Is that why the house is a mess?”

The strangeness of Covey’s words settled over Jun like fog. All he could do was nod.

Covey straightened in his seat and pointed a finger at Jun. “You saw nothing. Got it?”

“Got it, boss,” said Jun.

“All you gotta do is get me to where we gotta go.” He paused. Then scrunched his face, turning to Jun. “Sorry, remind me where we’re going again?”

“Uh, the studio, sir. We’re about twenty minutes late.”

Covey blinked a couple of times until his lips formed a wide O. “Yes! That’s right!” He crossed his arms and relaxed into his seat, grinning. “Well, better get to it!”

They didn’t speak for the rest of the crawl through LA traffic. When the studio’s flat rooftop appeared above the tree line, Jun pulled into the security gates and parked in the back. He flinched when Covey’s hand landed on his shoulder. “Thanks for looking out for me back there. Honestly, if you weren’t there, I don’t know what would have happened to me.”

The Covey he was talking to right now was not the one he had been talking to back at his house. Two completely different people.

Can withdrawals really change a person like that as Robin had mentioned?

For the first time, he wished Robin was there so they could ensure Jun wasn’t crazy. Jun nodded, itching to remove Covey’s strong grip. “Of course, sir.”

Covey gave him another squeeze. He stepped out and turned back. “By the way, you don’t need to wait for me after the recording!”

“Why?”