by J. S. Lee
I refused to let my brain overthink it anymore. No sooner had I decided that, the doors opened behind, and fans started filing in. There was no time to feel sorry for myself.
The show was just as fun and energetic as the other stops had been, despite MinMin not being there. The others threw themselves into their performances to deliver a show that had their fans screaming the whole time.
The only time the crowd had been quiet was during their first performance when it had come to MinMin’s part. JongB had not learned MinMin’s lines. Instead, he had come up with his own. It had thrown the crowd who had stopped to listen to his lyrics – lyrics he had rapped in English – telling the audience a new part to each song’s story. I caught it all on camera, hoping there were fan sites there to have gotten it all on video too.
Midway through, they had called MinMin, and I had almost gone deaf from the screams he’d earned. Slowly, the room had started chanting something at him: a knight in Onyx armor. That was cute, and when JongB had translated it for him, the biggest, but most bashful smile I had seen had broken out on his face.
It was adorable.
The only time I paused was to swap the flash pack on my camera. I’d not swapped it out with everything that had happened, leaving the one from the Toronto show attached. Normally, a fully charged one would last the full show as I used it sparingly under the lights, but the last forty-eight hours had been crazy.
At least I had my spare in my camera kit at the side of stage. I switched it out, cursing under my breath as I missed CX giving Xiao a piggy back around the stage as one of the forfeits for a fan challenge.
I hurried back, continuing with my job, losing myself in the moment.
I loved my job.
By the end of the show, I was exhausted. I desperately needed a drink, something to eat, a shower, and my bed. I was willing to forgo all of them for sleep. Only, we still had to pack up and get back to the hotel we hadn’t even checked into. Which meant water was needed first.
A dizzy spell washed over me, and I reached out, using the wall for support. Much as I had enjoyed the American part of this tour, it had also been emotionally and physically draining. Tomorrow, while the guys were busy with interviews, I was going to take a nap.
A shiver ran down my spine.
No, I wasn’t staying anywhere alone. Especially not in a hotel room. Regardless of how tired I was, I was going to go wherever Onyx went and stay with them. I closed my eyes, bowing my head as I leaned my back against the wall.
No.
I was not going to let Damien rule my life. I was not going to allow him to make me scared to leave my room, nor be scared to stay in it.
“Kate?” Youngbin said, softly, interrupting my internal argument.
I opened my eyes and found him in front of me, concern filling his gaze. “Hi,” I greeted him with a warm smile. Although he was still wearing the last outfit from the show – jeans and a tour t-shirt – he’d put his glasses on, and he was holding his sweaty hair back from his face with a bandana. “I love that look on you.” I told him.
“I’d love to say the same thing, pretty girl,” he said, not losing the concerned frown. “Only, you look like you’re going to pass out.”
“I’m just exhausted,” I admitted.
“Go sit down for a while,” Youngbin suggested, pointing down the corridor.
I looked down the corridor towards the green room, and then shook my head. “I think I’m going to stay here. It’s cool and quiet, and I’m not in the way.”
That earned me a scowl. “Kate-”
“It is cool and quiet,” I repeated. “I am inside, and there are enough people coming and going.” I glanced around, and happy the coast was clear, gave him a quick kiss. “I will be fine. You, however, need to go finish doing what you’re doing, so we can leave, and I can get some sleep.”
Youngbin didn’t look thrilled at leaving me there, but he kissed my cheek, then walked off back to the others.
Terrible as it sounds, I was grateful. I just needed ten minutes to myself. I sank to the floor, crossing my legs, then pulled my backpack into my lap. Somewhere in the bottom of it, I had a bottle of Fanta I’d picked up from a vending machine at La Guardia as we had been waiting for the luggage. There was also a Snickers somewhere in the depths too.
I emptied the contents out beside me, finding my needed sugar. I’d devoured the slightly squished Snickers before I’d even thought about returning things to the bag. It was only when I started to pack the bag that I discovered I was missing a flash. I groaned, banging my head against the wall behind me. “Idiot,” I muttered.
With lightning speed, everything went back into the bag and I hurried back into the auditorium, hoping that no one had spotted the flash pack and it was where I had left it.
The auditorium was in almost darkness, lit mainly by the emergency exit lighting. The front of house and security team had done an exceptionally efficient job of emptying the venue. Normally, there were people here, lingering. I had to pull my phone out of my pocket for the torch function to see where I was going.
I hoped trying to find this in the dark wasn’t going to be too much of an effort.
Thankfully, it wasn’t.
The flash was exactly where I had left it. I breathed a sigh of relief. They weren’t overly expensive, or at least, this one wasn’t, but I would have been annoyed at myself if I’d had to buy another one because I’d been an idiot and left it somewhere.
The room was deathly quiet and in almost darkness, creepy as fuck. It sent an uneasy shiver down my spine. The building was secure, and my nerves were on edge despite myself, but I didn’t want to be in there any longer than I had to be.
I packed the flash away, then hurried back to the door I had come in through. Just as I stepped into the hallway, my eyes blinking at the bright light, someone stepped in front of me.
Broad shoulders took up the doorway. In an instant, I knew it wasn’t Xiao.
I launched my bag at Damien’s head. He knocked it to the side, and it fell to the floor with a crash, but it was enough of a distraction for me to turn and charge into the auditorium, getting some distance between us. Instead of yelling for help, I kept the air in my lungs as I forced my legs to run.
I was stiff. I was aching. I was tired. I also wasn’t a runner. I needed all the oxygen I could muster.
“Where do you think you’re going, Kate?” Damien called as the door closed behind him.
I didn’t answer. Instead, I ran up the center aisle for the main door. I crashed into it. It didn’t budge.
“I know where you are, Kate,” he taunted, his voice getting closer.
Yeah… And I knew where he was too.
I abandoned the locked door. The one I knew was unlocked had Damien between me and it. My adrenaline was pumping, somehow keeping me from completely freaking out. I sucked in a deep breath, sent a silent prayer to an unknown god, and charged as fast as I could, along the back of the room and down the side, towards the door.
I was almost in touching distance when, from out of nowhere, a battering ram slammed me into the wall. My shoulder took the brunt of it and a scream of pain escaped me. It died in my throat as a hand gripped around my neck, lifting me off the ground as he pinned me to the wall.
“You have me on the run from the police,” Damien panted in my ear. “Why would you do that, Kate?” As my hands clawed desperately at his arms, Damien pressed his weight up against me. “All you ever did – all you ever do – is try to make me look bad.”
I was feeling weak, my body desperately needing air. I couldn’t see his eyes, but my senses were screaming at me, telling me that if I didn’t get away from him, I wouldn’t.
I stopped clawing at him and with all the energy I could muster, grabbed his head, shoving my thumbs into his eyes.
Damien roared in pain, dropping me. Instead of running, I brought my knee up as hard as I could, shoving it in his balls. Then, as he doubled over, clutching his, hopefully,
crushed dick, I ran for the door, yanking it open.
I barreled through it, colliding into Youngbin and Jiwon. “Kate?!”
“Damien,” I rasped, my throat sore and my lungs still trying to recoup the oxygen. “He’s in there.”
No sooner had I said that, the door burst open and Damien charged through like an enraged bull. Youngbin turned, pulling me and him away. I looked up, just in time to see Jiwon perform some form of spinning kick. The guy was a freaking ninja. His shoe collided with the side of Damien’s head, sending him careering head first into the wall.
He slumped to the ground with a satisfying ‘oomph’.
Jiwon whirled around on the spot and glowered at me. I could almost feel the rage radiating from him. “What the ever-loving fuck, Katie?” he bellowed at me. “What the fuck are you doing out here, alone?”
“Now’s not the time,” Youngbin told him.
“I just went to get my flash,” I mumbled, my words shaky as I clung to Youngbin. “I thought this was a secure venue. I thought security was in place.” Before I could say anything else, the hallway seemed to burst into life. I was ushered into the green room and away from Damien as a hoard of men descended on his unconscious form.
제 22 장
I Don’t Care
After being checked over by a paramedic, Sungmin, Youngbin, and Jiwon had gone with me to the police station to make a statement. It was New York and the place had been heaving, so it had taken a while for someone to be free to talk to us. We’d been left in a waiting area. Youngbin and Jiwon sat on either side of me, each holding onto one of my hands.
From across the room, busy on his phone, Sungmin was constantly sending not-so-discreet glares in our direction. I was too tired to care, and in desperate need of their touch. Seeing as neither guy was in a hurry to let go of me either, I chose to ignore Onyx’s manager. Instead, I had leaned my head against Jiwon’s shoulder, and stared at a spot on the floor as we waited.
It was after breakfast when we stepped out of the police station. Sungmin hailed a cab and we all climbed in the back. It didn’t take long for us to get stuck in traffic and I ended up nodding off against Youngbin.
“Kate?” Youngbin’s gentle voice was urging me awake, but I didn’t want to wake up. “Kate?”
Begrudgingly, I stretched, sitting up. We were at the hotel. Jiwon reached for the door handle, but Sungmin stopped him. “For fuck’s sake!” he snapped.
The three of us looked at him in astonishment. That was the second time I’d ever heard Sungmin swear. Considering how much we – me and Onyx – had put him through on this tour, he had somehow managed to retain his professionalism and keep the cussing out of his vocabulary.
“Let go of Kate’s hand!” He ran a hand through his hair in exasperation. “We will talk about whatever damn dating mess you lot have gotten yourselves into later, but right now, you’re about to step out in public, holding hands. If that picture makes its way back to Atlantis, I’m not going to be able to help you.”
It was me that let go of their hands, pulling mine free.
“Kate,” Youngbin muttered, shooting his manager a dark look.
“It’s twenty feet to the hotel,” I assured him. “I can cope with that.”
We got out of the taxi under Sungmin’s scowling observation, and I was greeted by the cold winter air. Suddenly, I wasn’t tired. Much as I wanted to keep holding onto Youngbin and Jiwon, I shoved my hands into my pockets, following them into the hotel.
No sooner had we walked in, I was set upon by a blur.
My sleep deprived brain took far too long to recognize the high-pitched chastising. “Holly?” I wriggled out of her death grip in surprise. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
“It’s good to see you too,” she rolled her eyes at me. “What do you think I’m doing here? As soon as I was told Damien had turned up at Toronto, I took the first flight out here. If it wasn’t for Sungmin messaging me to say you were leaving the police station, I would have met you there.” She took a step back and scanned my appearance. “I’m going to kill him.”
That was Jiwon’s line.
“Get in line,” Youngbin grunted.
“Nobody is going to kill anybody,” I yawned. “The police have arrested him and promised that he would be arraigned first thing in the morning, and they had him overnight. The detective and prosecutor I spoke to assured me that, given the fact Damien had followed me across borders, he would not be getting bail. No murder is needed. Nor is spending more time than is absolutely necessary on that dick.” I yawned again. “Holls, much as I love you, I need sleep.” The brief pick-me-up the cold, outside air had provided had quickly worn off. I needed my bed again.
“I checked you into my room,” Holly told me. “I figured you wouldn’t want to be alone, and tomorrow, after some sleep, you and I need to have a talk.”
She wasn’t wrong there. “So long as you don’t expect a sleepover tonight, because I can barely keep my eyes open.” I was too tired to work out how long I had been awake for, but I felt like I could sleep for four days.
“Sleep,” Holly promised me. She looked to Youngbin, Jiwon, and Sungmin. “I’ve cancelled your appearances. All of you can rest for the rest of your time in New York.”
I wasn’t surprised to hear the objections. “We have a TV show tomorrow,” Youngbin exclaimed. “This is huge for Onyx.”
“Today,” Holly corrected him, glancing at her watch. “You need to be at the studio in an hour to make the recording.”
Youngbin glanced at me, clearly conflicted. I waved my hands at him, ushering him away. “I mean it when I say I am going to sleep,” I told him. “If you want to sleep: sleep. If you want to go: go. I am going to bed.”
I could see Youngbin considering it, and then he turned to his manager. Sungmin, who, bless him, looked done, but he nodded. “I’ll go wake the others up.”
“I doubt they’re asleep,” Jiwon muttered under his breath.
Four days was more like seven hours. I rolled over in the bed, reaching for my phone to check the time. It wasn’t there, but there was a digital clock on the bedside table telling me it was mid-afternoon.
The light tapping of keys brought my attention to the woman at the desk at the foot of the bed. Holly, already up and dressed smartly in a skirt and blouse, was sitting at her laptop, busy working. “Does it ever stop?” I asked her. My question almost had her jumping out her chair. “Still jumpy?” I chuckled.
“Yes, and Jun takes full advantage of that,” she grumbled under her breath, closing the lid on her laptop. She gave me a smile, then, reached over to the minibar.
“Isn’t it a bit early for that?” I asked as she pulled out two individual bottles of white wine and picked up two wine glasses from the sideboard.
“It’s 5 o’clock in Seoul,” she informed me as she sat on the bed beside me, stretching her legs out gracefully.
She offered one of the bottles and a glass to me. I frowned as I took them from her. “Dude, it’s 5 am in Seoul.”
“It’s still 5 o’clock,” she shrugged, unscrewing the bottle. “I figure we are owed it.”
I poured the liquid in the glass and took a long sip. It wasn’t bad. “OK, I needed this,” I admitted. I relaxed back into my pillows, blowing out a breath. “I’m sorry.”
Beside me, Holly arched an eyebrow. “For what?”
“This tour is turning out to be a bit of a mess because of-”
“Damien,” Holly cut me off, her tone final. “The guy is responsible for his own actions.” She turned slightly so she could face me. “I have spoken to legal who have been liaising with a lawyer out here. Damien was at court this morning and he is being held without bail. You’re safe. It looks like it will go to trial, but that will take a few months. If you need to be there, with either CX, MinMin, or Xiao, we will arrange for that, and have security for you as a precaution. The lawyers said it will end up being after the tour ends, but if for whatever reason it doesn’t, and they
need you here, we will work with everyone to make sure you’re all present. We’ll make sure he gets put away for a long time.”
“Will that work? He still got into the venue.”
“According to the lawyer, he was found with a ticket on him: he bought his way, legally, into the venue. Then he hid.”
That was a lot smarter, and it took a lot more effort than I’d ever given Damien for in the past. “I just don’t understand it,” I admitted. “I never saw it coming.”
Holly’s gaze dropped to her lap. “I suck as a friend. I never expected him to turn out like this, either. He seemed normal in college.”
“I know, right?” I exclaimed. “At least my taste in men has improved.” At that, Holly let out the longest sigh. “You can’t make me end things with them!” I cried, seeing her expression.
“Oh, hell, no!” Holly exclaimed. “First of all, I am in no position to do that. Second of all, you’re all consenting adults.”
“But their contracts?” I offered.
“Believe it or not, that’s the easy part.” Holly took a few sips of her wine. “To cut a very long and boring story short, I’ve been quietly amending contracts at Atlantis, taking any opportunity I can to get them resigned without arousing suspicion. I don’t agree with it.”
“Resigning contracts?” I asked, confused. “Then why do it?”
“No, the original ones. Or some of them.” She set her glass on the side and folded her arms. “Lee Woojin…” she glanced at me. “My father, when he was more involved with the early artists and actors, their contracts stated that relationships had to be kept secret and it was at the company’s discretion as whether or not, and when, these would be announced publicly. It was also at Atlantis’ discretion as to whether or not we would support these individuals, depending on the circumstances the relationships were made public. When the Spawn of Satan took over, one of the many million unbelievably selfish and dickish moves he made, was to rewrite that clause out. H3RO were the first ones told they could not date. Period.”