AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Naomi shook her head. “Not happening. We’d never get a permit for a public performance with his name on it. And if we snuck him into someone else’s lineup, the lawyers say we’d have the city down our throats before he’d even finished his set.” She spun the dressing table chair around and sat on the edge. “Look, the news isn’t all bad. We’ve got three dozen dates already or almost secured, including this place. So, it’s a bona fide tour. And, once people realize there’s no Seoul dates, it won’t take very long to figure out why.”
Seong Woo frowned as he slowly paced the length of the room. “KBR will never publicly admit to stonewalling Tae Hyun.”
“Maybe not.” Jason grinned. “But we sure as hell can.”
Seong Woo shook his head. “We don’t want to make any claims we’re not ready to back up in court.” He quietly snorted. “Not even my father would take on Pak Jun Ho without an army of lawyers backing him up.” The KBR CEO was well known for ruthlessly protecting his company’s interests by whatever means necessary. The fact that KBR had essentially locked up every auditorium, concert hall, and stadium in Seoul was good evidence of that.
“I’m not talking about running to theK-Star Dailywith this directly,” Jason assured him. “But something back channel, maybe. Hell, we’ve always got theU4s.” After several flame wars broke out on the officialXTC Dreamfansites, the mods started handing down permabans to anyone who even mentioned Tae Hyun, leading to a mass revolt and the creation ofU41A, orEuphoria, Tae Hyun’s official fan club. The members referred to themselves asU4s. “You know they’d love a chance to shit-talk KBR.”
“Let’s not weaponize Tae Hyun’s fan club just yet,” Naomi suggested. “One of the reasons we’re not KBR is because we don’t play dirty.”
Lily scoffed. “There’s a long list of reasons we’re not KBR.”
“But Naomi’s right,” Seong Woo said. “Besides, they’re already doing a good job supporting Tae Hyun. Especially the fans in Korea. We don’t want to make it more difficult for them.” His phone chirped again. He chuckled after taking it out to check it. “Yoo Mi wants to know if you’ve done your fitting yet.”
Jason chuckled, too, nodding. “You’d better believe we did. I’d sooner piss off Naomi than mess with Yoo Mi and her wedding plans.”
Naomi frowned but didn’t take the bait. Seong Woo nodded as he tapped out a reply.
“Let’s just finish up this tour and get the paperwork signed,” Naomi suggested as she stood. “We can worry about the rest later.”
Seong Woo nodded again. “I’ll have my people start working up some language for the inevitable questions around the lack of Seoul tour dates. Maybe we could even put together a tour package for Korean fans to see the shows in Japan?”
Naomi nodded. “That’s a great idea. Lily and I are meeting with Min Ji after this, so I’ll discuss that with her.” Kwon Min Ji was the manager of the Vital Agency’s LA office. Part of Big Hammer’s business deal with Seong Woo was that Vital would handle all their marketing and PR. Jason was fine with that, considering how well they’d handled everything during the early days after Tae Hyun and, by extension, Jason, had come out.
Lily looked at Jason and frowned. “Hey, boss. You’re looking a little rough. Are you gonna make it?”
Jason nodded. The way he’d slowly sunk into the waiting room sofa probably indicated otherwise. But he’d endured far worse. “I did a week of twelve-hour shoots in a Hungarian castle’s damp, freezing basement. I’ll be fine.”
Camilla was waiting for them in the corridor as promised. And Seong Hyeon had somehow found her there. He politely listened while she half-explained, half-bragged, about a concert they’d just had with J-pop superstar Azuma the week before. She probably thought Seong Hyeon was Japanese. Hell, she probably thought they all were. But he looked sharp in a smart, oxford blue suit with a pale green shirt and bright orange tie. It was a nice change of pace from the plain black suit and tie he used to wear. Nearing thirty, he wasn’t quite as jacked as his younger brother but still had the Song family’s rugged good looks. And he’d probably look thirty for the next twenty years.
Jason’s pocket buzzed, so he grabbed his phone and checked it, smiling at the thought of a message from Tae Hyun. But his smile dipped into a frown when he saw the message from Tony Ruiz. He didn’t even need to read it to know what it said, considering he hadn’t yet responded to Tony’s last message, wondering if Jason had read his script yet.
Antonio Ruiz had written and directedThe Moon Shines Madlyand given Jason the part that made him the youngest-ever Best Actor award winner. He and Jason had fallen out of contact after the incident inThe Long Evening Sunsetthat got him fired. But Jason’s star had recently been on the rise again, prompting Tony to reach out with an offer to produce and star in his newest project about a powerful congressperson’s Chief of Staff who becomes unwittingly embroiled in a dark and dangerous political cover-up, calledThe Devil’s Detail.
“Everything okay, boss?”
Jason looked up at the sound of Lily’s voice and found himself the center of everyone’s attention. He forced an insincere smile. “I’m fine. Just an unexpected message.” Still, it was as good an excuse as any to break away from the tour. Being back in the corridor’s intense lighting only made his headache worse. And he didn’t have to sign any of the paperwork anyhow. “But I should probably deal with it.” He turned to Naomi. “You can handle the rest of this, right?”
Naomi quietly huffed. She hadn’t given Jason any lectures about following through lately, so he knew he’d just earned another one. But she also knew him well enough to know when he’d reached his limit. “Yes, I can handle this. I’ll leave you with Seong Hyeon. You can listen to his security report when you’re done with–” She waved toward his phone. “–whatever that is.”
“Great!” Jason didn’t care that Naomi was saddling him with a security report as long as it got him out of the remainder of the tour. “Then I’ll catch you all after.”
Seong Hyeon patiently waited while Jason tried his best not to actively shoo Camilla and the others away. His faintly amused expression suggested he didn’t believe for a moment that Jason was interested in the facility’s security.
“I assume, sir,” Seong Hyeon said, switching to Korean since they were alone, “that you don’t actually want to hear my report.”
Jason sheepishly grinned. “No. But I know I should. Just tell me the fastest way outta this maze first.”
Seong Hyeon pointed back toward the way Jason had come from. “The outside exit is some distance in that direction.” Then he pointed the other way. “But there’s a stairwell this way that leads up to the arena.”
“That’ll work. I’ve had about enough standing under fucking overhead fluorescents for one day.” Jason huffed. “You can give me your report on the way.”
Seong Hyeon explained what he’d learned while meeting with the arena’s production and security teams, but Jason only half-listened. It wasn’t entirely because of his disinterest. He also trusted the man and had no doubts about his capabilities. After learning that Seong Hyeon had served in the Korean special forces with Yu Min Kyu, Seong Woo’s head of security, Jason offered him the role of Big Hammer’s security chief. He’d never had much in the way of security before he’d met Tae Hyun and everything that went down in Seoul. And certainly not a whole security team. But Jason’s needs had changed a lot since then. Hell, almost everything about his life had changed since then.
Given his tendency to get fired, Jason had originally proposed Big Hammer Entertainment as a way to produce projects for himself. And Tony’s script was the first real role he’d been offered in years. But taking on the role of producing Tae Hyun’s album meant his acting aspirations had competition. His turn would have to come once they released Tae Hyun’s album and started his tour. And that was probably fine. He was doing it for Tae Hyun, and there wasn’t anything in the world he wouldn’t do for the man he loved.
As much as Jason’s new profession impacted his life, being in a relationship changed things even more. And the biggest change was always taking someone else into consideration when, for the longest time, he only thought about himself. Naomi had been the first to point out when Jason had started doing that, much to his irritation, when he’d first confessed that he might have feelings for the idol.I never thought I’d hear you talk about someone other than yourself that way. But Jason hardly ever thought about himself anymore–or only himself, at least–except maybe when he was stuck in an endless series of boring meetings. He was otherwise almost always thinking about his idol boyfriend. Even when meeting with blandly racist arena sales managers, Jason powered through by reminding himself that it was all worth it for the man he loved. And, hopefully, it helped make him worthy of the man who loved him.
