Page 96 of K-Pop Double Life

“Sang-hoon!” Jin’s voice, panicked. He was rushing toward me. “Oh my god, Sang-hoon!”

He was beside me, hands on my face, my shoulders, trying to see the injury. His eyes were wild, makeup smudged from sweat and stage lights.

“I’m okay,” I managed. “Just a cut.”

“You’re bleeding!”

“I’m okay.” I caught his hands, held them. “Jagiya, I’m okay. But you need to get back inside the secure area. Now.”

“Not without you.”

“Jin.” Aidan appeared, his voice firm but gentle. “Medical team is coming for Sang-hoon. But we need to move you. Now.”

Security was already forming a perimeter around us. The woman was on the ground, hands zip-tied behind her back, screaming in German.

Jin let Aidan pull him toward the green room, but his eyes stayed on me the entire time. Terrified. Guilty. Like this was somehow his fault.

The audience beyond the wings was still cheering, unaware that anything had happened.

39

EXPOSURE

SANG-HOON — SÃO PAULO

The medical team cleaned and bandaged the cut—ten centimeters along my forearm, deep enough to need stitches but not deep enough to hit anything important. The EMT said I’d been lucky. Another centimeter to the left and she would have severed a tendon.

I sat on an equipment crate in a backstage corridor, holding an ice pack to the swelling, while Liam debriefed me.

“Her name is Kristina Mueller,” he said, showing me her ID. “German national, entered Brazil three days ago on a tourist visa. She had credentials for the catering company. Real credentials, which means someone inside the company helped position her.”

“Sara Yoon.”

“Almost certainly. Mueller’s not talking yet, but we found encrypted messages on her phone. We’re working on breaking them, but I’d bet money they link back to Sara Yoon’s network.”

“What was she going to do? Stab Jin in the corridor between songs?”

“Looks like it. Quick strike, blend back into crew chaos, disappear before anyone realized what happened.” Liam’s face bore traces of his exhaustion. “You stopped her. If you hadn’t noticed her, if you hadn’t moved when you did⁠—”

“But I did.” I looked down at my bandaged arm. “Is the show canceled?”

“No. Jin insisted on finishing. He’s on stage now, has been for the last twenty minutes.” Liam pulled out his tablet, showed me the live feed from the wings. Jin performing, smiling for the crowd, giving them everything they’d paid for.

Only someone who knew him well would see the fear underneath.

“He shouldn’t be out there,” I said. “Not after this. He should be in the green room, processing, letting himself be scared.”

“He’s doing his job. Same as you did yours.”

He stood, offered me a hand. “Can you walk? Medical team wants to check you again before we fly out tomorrow.”

I let him pull me up. My arm throbbed, the adrenaline starting to wear off and leave exhaustion in its wake.

“Is Jin safe now? Is it over?”

“Kristina Mueller was one asset. I’m sure Sara Yoon has others.” Liam’s voice was careful. “We caught one threat. That doesn’t mean there aren’t more.”

“So we keep going. Keep pretending everything’s fine while someone’s trying to kill him.”