by J. S. Lee
“It was a massacre,” CX explained.
There was the sound of fingers clicking – I knew they were Holly’s before she spoke. “Priorities. And it’s not the plot points on Game of Thrones.”
“I don’t know, is the answer to all the other questions,” I sighed. “I’m… drugged up on pain medication. Apparently, there are no broken bones, just a lot of stitches.” I held up my hand and the stark white bandages that covered it to prove a point. “MinMin was taken away in the first ambulance. He had something stuck in his leg, and I heard the paramedic say he would need surgery to remove it. Jiwon and I went in the second ambulance, but when we got here, he was whisked off to a private room and I’ve not seen him since.”
“Why aren’t you in a private room?” Holly demanded.
I opened my eyes, shrugged, and then winced. “I don’t know, but it was pretty peaceful here until a few moments ago.”
Holly’s gaze softened. “I’ll go see to it that you are transferred into a private room.” She started to walk away, and then stopped. “What about Sungmin and Ina?”
“Sungmin was trapped in the car. The fire department were trying to free him when I left. Ina… Ina’s dead. Like the driver.” There were dozens of different ways I could have said that more tactfully, and that was how I shared the news with the people who had spent most of their careers with her.
Youngbin covered his mouth and then stepped away, tears already forming in his eyes. JongB had the tears streaming down his face as CX wrapped an arm around him.
“Are you sure?” Xiao asked, softly.
I nodded.
Xiao bowed his head, his lips moving in a silent prayer.
“I am not going to tell you how to mourn,” Holly told us, quietly. “And I realize this will sound insensitive, but you’re in a public ward. Just give me some time to move us into our own room.”
Although she didn’t say it, she was asking us not to show too much PDA. I nodded, even though all I really wanted was for any of them to pull me into their arms and protect me from everything I was feeling.
It didn’t take long for me to be wheeled into a private room in a private wing. “I’ll stay in the chair,” I told the nurse as he went to help me in the bed – a bed which looked like it belonged in a hotel rather than a hospital. I waited for him to leave the room before I gave the four members of Onyx pointed looks. “Why are we all still standing around in here?”
“Kate,” Xiao started.
I shot him a scowl. “I’m moveable in this chair. And I will stay in this chair, provided this chair is taken to MinMin and Jiwon.”
“We haven’t been told where they are,” Youngbin sighed. “Holly told us to wait in here with you.”
“You don’t know Holly like I do. Because if you did, you’d know that she’s fully expecting that we’re going to go find them.”
Youngbin arched an eyebrow. “Are you sure she didn’t put us in here to make sure you didn’t do that?”
“This is Kate,” JongB muttered. “We all know she’s going to drag her ass around the hospital looking for them. I mean, the last time MinMin was in a hospital, she sneaked over there to see him. Why do you think she was put in the VIP wing? At least up here we’re unlikely to bump into others.”
“If MinMin and Jiwon aren’t on this floor, I’ll return to this room,” I promised Youngbin. “But I will try to find them with or without you.”
“Come on,” Xiao said, stepping behind my wheelchair. CX hurried forward to open the door, and then I was pushed out into the deserted corridor. Seconds later, a second door opened and Jiwon stepped out.
“Hyung!” JongB called, running over.
He was about to wrap his arms around him, but Jiwon held a hand out, stopping him. “Don’t you dare,” he said in a low voice.
“Why?”
“Because my whole body aches.”
I could relate to that.
JongB tilted his head, and then, promptly ignoring him, wrapped his arms around him. Jiwon winced, and then hugged him back. “I’m glad you’re OK, hyung,” JongB told him as we joined them.
“Do you know where MinMin is?” Youngbin asked.
Jiwon nodded towards the room he had just exited. “He’d sent me to find you guys to see if everyone was OK.” The expression on our faces must have told him that wasn’t the case. “How is Sungmin?”
“We don’t know,” I told him. “Holly went to find out but hasn’t come back. Does MinMin know about Ina?”
“Yes.” Jiwon stepped back from JongB and pushed open the door. “Found them,” he declared as we walked in.
The two younger members went scurrying over to MinMin’s bed. Like the one I had been in, it looked like it belonged in a hotel. Hell, his room looked better than most of the ones I’d been in on tour.
“I’m having a strong sense of déjà vu,” MinMin muttered as CX and JongB climbed up on the bed beside him. “Are you OK, Kate?”
“No broken bones, but some drugs to keep me numb. I’m probably going to feel like shit tomorrow.”
“Same,” MinMin agreed.
“How are you?” CX asked him, staring at his bandaged leg.
“Thanks to Kateniss, I’ll be dancing in no time.”
I blinked. “What did I do?”
“Stopped me from pulling that piece of metal out. The doctor told me keeping it in was the smart thing to do. I mean, I’m going to be taking it easy for a couple of weeks.”
“That’s not going to be a problem.”
I turned, finding Holly in the room. “How is Sungmin?”
“Still in surgery,” she told us, solemnly. “The doctors are cautiously optimistic. It seems that aside from a broken leg, his surgery is cosmetic.”
“His face,” I realized.
Holly nodded. “They’re grafting skin on his cheek. They don’t think his jaw was damaged, but we won’t know for a few days.”
“What about his fiancée, Ko Moonhee?” Youngbin asked.
“She was filming a drama in Daegu. She’s being driven back now. I’m expecting her to arrive within the hour, which is when I’ll need to leave, so, forgive me because I know this isn’t the best timing, but we all need to talk.”
I wasn’t surprised, but I wasn’t looking forward to this. The room could easily have been mistaken for a suite and had two sofas in it. Xiao wheeled me beside one of them as he, Jiwon, and Youngbin sat on it. Holly took the other.
“I have no idea where to start,” she admitted. “I have no idea what is considered normal on tours, but this one has been eventful.” She chewed at her lower lip. “Let’s start with that. Currently, your Seoul concert tomorrow night has been postponed with no set reschedule date. Yes, there are trolls that are saying this is related to Jiwon and Kate’s illicit romance, but what would this be without Netizens having their say.” She let out a long breath. “I’m going to come back to the relationship stuff.”
“OK,” Jiwon agreed.
“I had planned to share this with you today, had you come into Atlantis, but we have also been arranging an encore tour in Latin America, plus Poland, to make up for that date. I’m sorry, that wasn’t part of the plan, but neither was a delayed flight. You’ll be pleased to know that we are making sure there is no concert on the same day as traveling going forward.”
“That’s something,” Youngbin muttered.
“I don’t want to place blame because it’s unprofessional, but Sejin was a dickhead and thought about money, not people,” Holly said, dryly. “It had originally been scheduled to kick off in eight weeks – you were going to have a comeback and it would allow time for Sungmin to get married and have a honeymoon, which, by all accounts, it sounds like he deserved before this happened.”
A honeymoon at a spa with twice-daily massages…
“I don’t expect a decision today, but we can either postpone the comeback until after the tour, or we can push the tour back.”
“Sungmin needs time to recover and have
his wedding,” Youngbin said firmly. “That’s the priority.”
Holly opened her mouth to say something, but she stopped herself. My guess was she was going to point out there was still a possibility Sungmin wouldn’t resume his position as their manager…
“Either way, you all need some down time. There will be people who complain if you postpone, and people who will claim you’re disrespectful if you don’t.” She folded her legs, smoothing out the skirt of her dress.
Even in a hospital, she dressed like she was at work. I was willing to bet, with everything going on, she had been at Atlantis before coming here. “What about us?” I asked.
Holly stared at me, then slowly shook her head. She reached up, letting her hair free of its ponytail, and rubbed at the back of her head. “Seeing as you’ve all been on a plane or in a hospital, let me fill you in on the news in Seoul. Given recent events in the K-Pop world, idols are falling under heavier scrutiny. I told you in New York this was never going to be easy.” She sighed. “OK, Jiwon’s fan site released images to the press of you two entering a hotel room together in Amsterdam.”
I nodded. This bit I knew. “What has Atlantis said?” Jiwon asked.
“Nothing,” Holly replied. “Well, we released a statement to say this would be discussed when you returned to Seoul so we could check facts and would report back. Heartless as it sounds, this accident has bought you a couple of days to make a decision.”
“We’re not ending things,” JongB said, simply.
“I suspected you would say that,” Holly agreed. “Some of the board think it would be better to deny it, others think we should use Cube as an example.”
Cube Entertainment was another K-Pop company. A member of a boy idol group was caught dating a former member of a girl idol group, both at Cube. Cube denied it, the couple said it was true, and then both were kicked out of the company.
“What do you say?” Jiwon asked.
Holly shrugged. “Very little. It would be pretty hypocritical of me to do so. I want to know what you guys want to do.”
“What options do we have?”
“We deny it. We can blame it on cultural differences, but it was completely innocent. You apologize, hopefully your fans will accept it. But you don’t decide to admit it later, because we’ve all seen how that works out. Or we issue a statement to say it’s true and that you’ve been dating. But that’s going to affect all of you. You’re going to have to be exceptionally careful – even more so. You’re all going to have to accept it too.”
“What’s the third option?” Jiwon asked, folding his arms.
“There isn’t one,” Holly replied, surprised. “Unless this is you saying you don’t want to be in Onyx anymore?” She suddenly looked alarmed at that prospect.
“I don’t feel right lying to our fans,” MinMin said from the other side of the room.
“No, I don’t,” Youngbin agreed. “But we can hardly admit the truth.”
“I think we can,” JongB said, slowly.
“Did you get in an accident on the way to the hospital and hit your head?” Jiwon asked him, scathingly.
“No, hear me out,” JongB said, holding his hands up. “Something in the middle. Anita had one picture of Jiwon and Kate, but how many does Kate have of us all with her?”
“Oh, for the love of god, now is not the time to be showing off those kinds of pictures,” Holly muttered, her head sinking into her hands. “That’s a whole other scandal I’m praying daily that Sejin wasn’t caught up in.”
“Holly, I have never taken those kinds of pictures,” I promised her. “But we have taken the cutesy couple pictures.”
Holly fixed me a look; her mouth pressed together in a thin line. “You know that doesn’t fill me with as much confidence as you think it does.”
“We release the innocent couple photos. Explain to people that we’ve all grown close to Kate,” JongB pushed on. “Technically, we’re sharing with the world that we’re together, but there is no way anyone will believe it like that. We’re not lying then.”
Holly considered it. “It’s not a terrible idea, but the fact is fans are not going to be happy with the level of skinship.”
“There isn’t a scenario where fans are going to be happy,” Xiao pointed out. “But I’m inclined to agree with JongB. At least we’re not completely lying with his option.”
“Think about it some more,” Holly said, carefully. “I’m not saying it’s wrong, and I’m not saying it’s right. I am saying Atlantis will support you with whatever decision you make, however, your fans might not. This whole industry needs an overhaul, but you guys do not need to be the group to try it.” Her phone started ringing and she pulled it out of her bag. “Yes…? I will be right down.”
From early on, Sungmin had said claiming to be in a relationship with just one member was the way to go, but now we were here, I wasn’t sure. I had an idea, but I wasn’t sure the others would go for it.
Holly stood. “I’m sorry, Ko Moonhee is here. The only thing I wanted to address before I left was the short-term practicalities of you dating. Kate, I want you to stay with me until we work out what is happening. I don’t need the press seeing you going in and out of the dorms. I’ve been working on something but depending on your decision…” she trailed off, shaking her head. “I will have a driver collect you when you’re discharged if I can’t collect you myself. I’ll be speaking to Ina’s family soon too. I’ll let you know of the funeral arrangements when I know them.”
I waited for her to leave the room before I spoke. “You know what the really obvious answer is, right?”
Jiwon let out an irritated sigh as he rolled his eyes. “Just don’t, Kate.”
“Don’t what?” JongB asked.
“She’s back in her, breaking up will solve everything mode.”
“We’re not doing that,” Youngbin said, firmly.
I held a hand up. “Look, that’s crossed my mind a few times because I’m half convinced it’s the easiest thing to do, but not much has been easy, so why make it so now? No, I was going to say, let’s release Anita’s messages to Jiwon. We blur out the somewhat inappropriate photographs – enough to not tell who it is, but enough to show that they were inappropriate – and we point out that Jiwon has a crazy fan. What did you call them?”
“A sasaeng,” JongB replied.
“One of them,” I agreed. I turned to Jiwon. “You said she wanted my job.”
“Oh, fuck off,” he grunted. “I told you, that’s not happening. I’m not having her hanging around us anymore.”
“No, but if you message her, asking her help to make everything disappear in exchange for that, we can release that: further evidence she’s an evil bitch. Then we never ever need to address the photograph.”
“I’m not sure Atlantis will go for that,” Youngbin muttered. “It’s going negative.”
“This isn’t a presidential election,” I pointed out, shifting in my wheelchair. I think the drugs were beginning to wear off because things were beginning to ache that hadn’t twenty minutes ago.
“We’re not going negative,” Youngbin repeated, firmly.
Before it could develop into an argument, there was a soft knock at the door and Byeon Taeyoon walked in. We collectively looked at Sungmin’s assistant. He looked as exhausted as we did. “Manager Sungmin has just been released from surgery. The doctors are going to keep him in the hospital for a few days, and then they’ll discharge him. Holly has asked that I take Sungmin’s place as manager until he has been cleared to return to work, rather than assign someone new to the group. I hope you are happy with that.”
It wasn’t a question, but the group nodded anyway. I hadn’t had much to do with Taeyoon while on tour, but although he was someone with a quiet personality, he was someone the group clearly trusted and respected.
“I have spoken to your doctors. Jiwon, they will be discharging you imminently. MinMin, Kate; they want to keep you both in overnight. You both have antib
iotics in those drips and you need to see your treatment through.”
I glanced up at the half full bag. Well, huh. That would explain why the pain medication felt like it was wearing off.
I was wheeled back to my room and helped into my bed. To be honest, I was feeling a little grateful for that. As much as I hated hospitals, I was struggling to keep my eyes open. CX was tucking me in, promising to be back the following morning with some fresh clothes, when a thought hit me. I sat bolt upright, nearly headbutting him.
“Kate!” Xiao exclaimed, darting over.
“My bag!” I cried.
“All of the luggage was collected when we landed. The driver who picked-”
“No,” I said cutting Youngbin off. “My carry-on: it was in the car with me. It had my phone, my camera, my laptop – all the memory cards with your photographs on it.”
“I have a friend in the Incheon Police department,” Taeyoon spoke up.
“Incheon?” I repeated, not sure how that was going to help.
“Your accident happened in the Gyeyang District; part of Incheon. The Incheon police are handling the investigation,” Taeyoon explained. “I have already been in contact with my friend regarding the accident. I will call him again later and make sure your carry-on – all the personal items in the vehicle – are returned to you.”
“Now lie down and get some sleep,” Xiao instructed me.
I did as he said, allowing CX to tuck me in once more. The action was strange, yet familiar, and for the brief moments before sleep won out, reassuring like the blanket over me.
When I awoke again, I was alone in the room with no concept of time. It was dark outside, but I didn’t know if the sun had just set or was about to rise. My screwed up internal clock which had no clue what time zone I was in was saying late evening.
I lay in bed, trying to get back to sleep, but all of the pain medication had worn off and it was like every limb was throbbing. I half expected my body to be swollen and looking like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters, but when I raised an arm, all I could see were the scratches and soon to be bruises.