by Samit Basu
'I want you to answer one question, and answer it honestly.' Joey says. 'Are you holding my family hostage? Will their safety be affected by my decision?'
'Of course your family is safe. This has nothing to do with them,' Raja says.
'We will watch over them,' Magan says. 'This sets you free. To escape your chains, and change the world.'
She looks at Rudra, and imagines, for a second, that he sits up, tears apart his cocoon, and emerges with wings, wet and gleaming.
'No,' Joey says, ' Sorry. No.'
CHAPTER TEN
'MY FIRST QUESTION is: what the fuck?' Joey asks.
Jin-Young grimaces. 'I'd prefer to explain after the food arrives,' he says. 'I'm very hungry.'
He looks completely different: his hair is now buzzed close to his scalp, and he's wearing a formal black shirt. Joey's struggling to cope with how good he looks.
'I swear I will beat you up in front of all these people if you don't tell me right now,' Joey says. 'Where were you? What happened?'
'I'd gone back to Seoul,' he says. 'I couldn't take it here anymore.'
'And you couldn't say goodbye? After everything we've been through together? I thought you were dead!'
'No, I just decided I was done here, and I left.'
'Don't lie to me.'
'No, I went to Seoul. They sent me back. I applied to a big K-drama producer. They hired me on the spot. Then the next day they told me I was to go back to Delhi.'
'Why?'
'It's confidential.'
'Jin-Young, don't push me. Seriously.'
'A major Korean studio is entering India,' Jin-Young says. 'I can't tell you anymore.'
'You're a Reality Controller there? That's great! You've been ready for a while.'
He tries not to say anything, and fails. 'No, I'm a designation above that,' he says.
'That's... even better! Wait, no. My second question,' Joey pulls out a piece of paper from her pocket, and his face turns red. 'What the fuck?'
'I hoped you wouldn't see that.'
'It took a while, because I don't manage to clean my house every day.'
'I hoped you wouldn't bring it up if we did happen to meet.'
'I like that you think I have so much grace.'
'Please don't read it. I'm very embarrassed.'
Joey unfolds the paper and reads. 'I loved you, you did not see me. Then I hated you, you did not see me. You will not see me again.'
Jin-Young hangs his head. 'Please let us not speak of this.'
'Fuck you. I thought one of Indi's lawyers was a stalker, at first. Scared out of my mind I had someone like that in my house. Then I scanned it, and saw it was your handwriting. You were already gone by then. And then I thought it was a suicide note.'
'I did not consider that possibility.'
'What were you thinking?'
'I apologise unconditionally. It was a very difficult day, and I thought I would be able to handle any amount of stress after growing up in Delhi, but I was wrong. I wasn't thinking. I thought I would never see you again, after that, but that is no excuse.'
She crumples up the paper. 'I'm just glad you're okay,' she says. 'Actually, I'm not, I'm furious. Don't ever do anything like this with anyone again.'
'I will not. I promise. I'm seeing a therapist as well, because I need to be sure I am better. I have done a lot of things over the last few months that I deeply regret.'
A large helping of bibimbap, and Joey's anger disappears immediately, but she keeps glaring at him through mouthfuls of beef and egg and rice.
'I hope you will forgive me in time,' he says. 'I am going to be in Delhi for several years.'
'Yeah, I'll be fine. But I need to ask you if you still have feelings for me.'
Jin-Young appears to be choking on his bossam. Pink is not usually Joey's colour, but it suits his face.
'We should go out one evening and get to know each other outside work,' she says. 'I'd like us to be friends at least.'
He gulps, and clears his throat. 'I don't think that is a good idea,' he says.
'Wow.'
'No, I mean, I will be your rival in the industry, and I hope to one day hire you to work as my partner.' He hesitates for a second, and decides to go for it: 'Or my second-in-command.'
'So that's how it's going to be. All right. Now tell me about your new job. What will you be doing? Indian K-pop videos? K-dramas? K-Flows? What? Haven't they — you — already tried everything?'
'I can't tell you.'
'All of these, huh? Good luck with that. We've already ripped off all your formats.'
'The whole world has ripped off our formats. That's fine. We have a secret sauce.'
'You spent, what, a day in Seoul after a lifetime in Delhi? I like how you're all Mr Korea now.'
'May I speak frankly?'
'Of course.'
'I am the farthest person possible from Mr Korea, but I didn't understand that until I actually went there. But you people — even you — never allowed me to be Mr Delhi. I was born here. I grew up here. I know this city better than you ever will. It is interesting how they saw that in Seoul, but no one here ever did.'
'Jin-Young, if I've been... racist towards you, I'm sorry. I didn't know.'
'No, you haven't. But I suppose I notice it even when you've almost gone there, and carefully stepped back. I learn fast. And you cannot trick me into telling you what my company's plan is. Other countries have observable methods. Ours are still secret. Westerners form partnerships. The Chinese buy companies and land. The Japanese send people to learn the culture. No one understands how we do what we do.'
‘We, huh?’
‘Yes.’
She watches him with new appreciation as he takes far too deep a swig of beer. She wonders how long he's been waiting to deliver this speech, as she hardens herself to do what she must do next. She wishes she’d paid more attention when she’d gone to that tools-of-the-enemy seminar. She wonders if her face has already given away her complete disbelief in her own ability to be a trickster.
'Fine. Rivals. Respect. I like it,' she says. 'So you're planning to use all my methods against me.'
'A lot of them are methods we discovered together.'
'Listen, you're welcome to try. I didn't teach you everything I know, and I have new tricks now.'
'Really? What new tricks?'
'I mean, what could you do? Bring Korean stars here, or use Indians in Korean formats. We'll just hire everyone you train.'
'You have no idea how much money we're bringing.'
'These are the famous last words of every foreign company entering India. Fine. We'll fight it out. The company won't let me do what I want anyway.'
'What is that?'
'Just another plan I'll never get to carry out. Immigrant Flowstars. Low cost, fresh stories from around the world, new audiences. But we'll never get to do those, right? We'll be fighting over Bollywood rejects.'
'I suppose that is true,' Jin-Young says. 'I'm surprised you even considered immigrant Flowstars, though. No one has ever been interested in them.'
‘Well, it’s only worked everywhere else in the world.’
She waits for him to chew a few mouthfuls in silence, confident he'll take the bait, wondering if she ever knew him at all.
'Of course you're going to find a way to do it,' he says.
'No one's interested, like you said. So I'll probably just let it go. Forget I brought it up.'
'Since you won't do it, could you tell me what the plan was with these immigrant Flowstars?' he asks. 'I ask out of academic interest, since there's no professional conflict here.'
'It doesn't matter. It's not like they're going to let you do anything except clone K-drama ideas and watch them fail anyway.'
'Speak for yourself. We are very interested in developing new markets.'
'Don't be a shit, Jin-Young. This is my idea.'
'That's ridiculous. You don’t own immigrants. You don't know anything about them. If any
thing, I should get them.'
'Well, you can't have them.'
'I will have them all.'
'I'll go to war over this if I have to.'
'Then it's war.'
She extends a hand solemnly, and he shakes it.
'It's good to be back,' Jin-Young says.
Her driver for the day is one of Laxmi's picks: after he hears her take a few calls on speaker, he complains at length about his problems on the night shift with some of her more recent hires: all those Africans, playing loud music in the car, drinking, god knows what else, he doesn't feel safe in those neighbourhoods, could madam transfer him? She advises him to ask Laxmi to find him another job, and enjoys his silence for the rest of the drive. The boulevards of central Delhi are still lined with trees, and there are construction-free stretches where she gazes in wonder, every time, at sudden monuments that she knows nothing about, and saptaparnis that will slumber for months before waking up to announce the coming of winter.
'The one person I'm angry with is Rudra,' Tara says. 'Everyone else, I know why they did what they did. But he actually made me think there was something real between us. I know he's an old friend of yours or whatever, but I have to tell you, he's a bastard.'
'Totally,' Joey says, sipping her coffee, which is possibly Ecuadorian, she wouldn't know. 'He just fucked off without saying where he was going. I'd stuck my neck out, hiring him with no qualifications, and now I look like a fool.’
‘It’s fine. Everyone knows you’re above nepotism, your reputation is incredible.’
‘Thank you for saying so.’
Tara beckons, and several City of Cats waiters appear to enquire what she needs. Not long ago, she'd been nervous about ordering foreign-sounding coffees, but now she rattles off the names quickly and chastises them for not writing it down, they keep messing up her orders. One of the waiters asks for a selfie for her family. Tara nods, and promises to do one in just five minutes, she's with a dear friend now.
'I know where Rudra's going,' she says. 'He's off to see the family properties. Take a guided tour of their lands, like a little raja. You know, he would never shut up about his family, how they mistreated him, this and that, but of course when it was time to join the business he jumped in. They always do.'
'I don't know why he thought he had to hide that from me,' Joey says. 'I thought he'd run off somewhere with Zaria.'
'I think she's seen far too many men to fall for his tricks,' Tara says. 'But you never know. Everyone has their weak spots. The quiet ones always sneak up on women way outside their league. Can you believe he didn't even take my calls?'
'Weird. Maybe he was upset with you?'
'Why? I mean obviously he was, but why? Not only did I help him, I also gave him a break, but he was too dumb to see it. I made him viral, there were like thousands and thousands of people who sent messages about how he should cheer up and move on, even copied his dance. It's the closest he'll ever be to people knowing who he is. Can you imagine... he was so angry I shared it that he just ghosted me? The egos on these boys, my god! Land on you out of nowhere, and it's suddenly your job to turn them into human beings because their parents couldn't.'
'True story.'
'Don't ever tell him I said so, but it was my mistake also. I thought he didn't want to remain broken, you know? But now I see he was just rich and lazy. He wasn't hiding from the world. He was just chilling because it was convenient. Still, I didn't think he would lash out at me when I helped. Almost fell for him, too. Asshole.'
'How did you find out? About this plan with his brother?'
'Oh, you don't know? I almost started working for Rohit, when our contract ran out.'
'I don't want this to be a thing where I tell you how I feel about him and then you tell me you took his offer.'
'I haven't said no yet. He wants me to be the spokesperson for their whole business, start a wellness Flow, all of that. The money's fantastic, he knows how to be generous, but he doesn't know the first thing about how to do it. Thinks he's an expert, of course. They all do. I would have had to set up the whole business for him.'
'Are you going to do it?'
'Will you come with me?'
'No.'
Their salads arrive while Tara struggles to make up her mind about how much she wants to tell Joey. Three mashed cubes of feta cheese later, she gathers herself together, and looks up.
'Why did you call me here?' Tara asks.
'Your offer finally came in from the funders,' Joey says. 'I'd sent them a plan for you weeks ago, but these things take time. Nikhil was off somewhere, and he needs to sign every offer himself.’
‘After he’s pretended it was all his idea?’
‘Well.’
'I thought you'd just forgotten about me.'
'No, of course I hadn't. You took off, I thought you'd come back. You could have just stayed. Sorry I didn't check in, but things have been hectic.'
'I like how you do that,' Tara says. 'Make everything my fault.'
'Nothing was your fault. I just wanted to make sure the offer was real before making plans with you. I know what it's like, waiting.'
'So you were only looking out for me,' Tara says. 'I get it. I suppose I should have messaged as well, but it looked like I was all set for something bigger.'
'So are you going to do it? Take Rohit's job?'
'Are we negotiating here?'
'No. But whatever you plan to do, I want to warn you about Rohit. He's a bit creepy.'
'Oh he made a move within half an hour of meeting me. Full grab and kiss. Overtaken by passion and all. Still, he wasn't so bad — I thought he would go straight for the boobs, that type usually does. I'm a hit with that whole family.'
'I'm sorry that happened.'
'Please. I suppose I shouldn't tell you this, but no, I'm not taking that job. It's not real. He made it up just to get his brother back. Then he got him back anyway. I stayed there in one massive hotel-type room for a few days, and whenever he was home he was either on the phone or he was trying to fuck me, just because he thought I belonged to Rudra.'
'I'm sorry.'
'Don't be. I can handle myself.'
'If you want to call him out, or file a complaint, I'll make sure the company backs you up.'
This time Tara actually laughs. 'Call him out it seems. What country do you live in? Powerful men are like this. At least he didn't pretend he was in love with me.'
'Fine, let's talk about work, then. Your offer's here. We can launch your new Flow in a few weeks, after the new crew's trained.'
'How are you doing?' Tara asks. 'It's been difficult, right? Indi's gone, Zaria's gone. Do you have any other clients? Jin-Young's gone, the crew's gone, Rudra's gone.’
Joey sighs elaborately. Tara’s an easier mark than Jin-Young, but she reminds herself to not be overconfident. She wonders if she’s ever going to get good at this.
'Jin-Young's back, actually. I met him a week ago. He’s all fired up about some new secret Korean diversity programme, don’t tell me you heard about it from me if you meet him, okay?’
‘Why would I meet him? But okay. So you’re all alone now? Only Joey left. Is your job safe?'
'No one's job is safe, but I'm not unhappy. This is a good opportunity, I think. You'll be my top Flowstar. We can hire a new crew, a more diverse crew this time. You were right, there were too many people like me, from school and college groups, families. We can change that now.'
'So you need my help to fight the Korean invasion and keep your job, basically.'
'We can help each other.'
'You and I live in different countries, you know.' Tara drains her coffee in a single gulp and sets it down on the table, too hard. 'For a long time I thought I wanted to live in yours. It's really pretty, really safe, everyone seems cool and nice and welcoming. Everyone knows everyone and everything, everyone has so much to teach you. And there are so many ways I could be better. It's not your fault, I get that now. But it's like those old console
games, right, where you could choose to play at an easier setting. I don't get that option.'
'I don't want you to feel this way,' Joey says. 'I'll do what I can to make it right.'
'You can't make it right. You people want to think you're good people, so you don't want to look down on me. But-'
'I have never looked down on you,' Joey says.
'Right. But I know when the next crisis comes, I can't depend on you.'
'What do you mean?'
'Indi couldn't depend on you, could he? He brought you in here, and the moment those fake accusations came you let him down. People find out who their real friends are in times like this. Only one person stood up for him. People remember things like that.'
‘I’m not sure the accusations were fake, exactly. But your offer is here,' says Joey, her voice not shaking even a little bit. 'Talk it over with your manager, and let me know.'
'Indi called me yesterday,' Tara says. 'Something's changed, and they're adding people to his Icon push.'
'I suppose they've had to change the plan after Zaria left.'
'I don't know anything about that. They need a second lead in his friend group. Someone with a little urban desi vibe. When it comes to the real India, you English types aren't the answer. They offered me the best friend's girlfriend. I'm going to take it.'
'Not the lead?'
'Not yet. They're getting a Hollywood girl for that. If it goes global, great for everyone. If she doesn't work out...'
'Wont that be odd for you?' Joey asks. 'I mean, you met the world as Indi's girlfriend.'
'No one gives a shit except the writing crew, Joey,' Tara says. 'The audience will adjust. I appreciate your offer, I really do. And I know you won’t believe me, but I actually like you. In spite of everything.'