Page 57 of K-Pop Double Life

I’d been so caught up in our conversation that I hadn’t realized that Jin had come to stand beside me. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

I turned to look at him. “Someone posted footage from Paris backstage. We’re handling it.”

“What kind of footage?”

There was no point lying. “Dressing room layouts. Costume changes. Enough detail to be a security concern.”

“So someone’s mapping our movements,” Jin said. His voice was steady, but I saw fear in his eyes. “Building a plan.”

“That’s our assessment.”

“When do we stop running and start fighting back?”

Good question. “When we know who we’re fighting. Right now we’re still gathering intelligence.”

“How long will that take?”

“We have people working on a variety of different angles,” I said. “In the meantime, we do whatever we can to protect you.”

Jin nodded. “Okay. But Aidan?”

“Yeah?”

“I need to know the truth. All of it. Not the sanitized version you think I can handle.”

I studied his face. Young, scared, but not backing down.

“There’s something you should know,” Jin said. “I got one of those threatening messages myself.”

He showed me his cell phone. I took it and forwarded the message to myself, then returned it to him. “Tell me about any more of these as soon as they come in, all right?”

He nodded, and then turned and walked back toward where the rest of the group was clustered beneath a chandelier of vertical glass panes suspended on nearly invisible wires.

I took a deep breath, then looked at Liam. “He’s falling apart,” I said. “Even though he’s been trained to function under pressure.”

I thought about Jin’s question—When do we stop running and start fighting back?

I didn’t have an answer yet.

Eun-ji had commandeered a hotel meeting room. Windowless, soundproofed, designed for conversations no one else should hear.

She waited at the head of the table when Liam and I arrived.

“Close the door.”

I did.

“The emails,” she said. “You’ve seen them.”

“All three.”

“They’re coming from inside Starhouse.” Her voice was flat, controlled. “Either someone with access is doing this, or someone is using stolen credentials.”

“That’s our assessment.”

For the first time, some of her executive composure cracked. “I built the international division from nothing. These artists, these staff? They’re my responsibility. And someone I trusted may be trying to kill one of them.”

She sighed. “There’s something else. Even though Sang-hoon has left the tour, the incident shows how much people can see.”