Chapter Text
None of them knew why Bobby had called an emergency meeting.
After all, the Honmoon was well on its way to becoming a homogenous, shimmering gold, and their latest single was several million streams above the one that the Saja Boys released two weeks prior.
Mira strutted into the living room behind Rumi, who was walking like she was about to step on stage in front of half-a-billion fans. She plopped down on the couch—the most comfortable couch that still hadn’t been broken in yet, because they were always so busy—and crossed her arms.
She glared through the glasses perched on her nose, more than irritated that Bobby had woken them up the morning after a show.
Beside her in the center of the couch, Rumi seated herself. She sighed heavily and rubbed at the corner of her eye. “Bobby, what’s this about?”
“Well, about that, I’m really glad you asked!” He nervously chuckled, eyes sweeping back and forth several times across the couch. “Wait—where’s Zoey?”
Mira’s tired frown morphed into a harsh scowl without her even realizing it.
“What, what’s that look for? Oh no, oh gosh, is she sick? I have five different doctors on speed dial, and the pharmacy’s in my car!” Bobby nervously tapped his foot, reaching into his pocket for his keys.
The pharmacy was quite literally a pharmacy. Bobby had every sort of medication a full-time idol could need in neatly sorted compartments in the back of his car.
He always made sure to carry at least six different brands of everything, which seemed a little excessive, but letting Bobby care was caring for Bobby.
Stomachache? No problem. Headache? Easy. Muscle pain? You’d have painkillers and tiger balm infiltrating your nose in a matter of seconds.
“No, don’t worry! She’s fine, she just stuck around the after party a little longer than we did.” Rumi waved her hand in the air, a gesture that it was no big deal.
Even though it was.
A very big deal, for whatever reason.
Mira told herself that it was just because they were busy, and waiting up to see if Zoey was okay cost her at least a couple hours of shuteye.
Bobby’s shoulders relaxed, and he exhaled his relief. “Okay, well can someone go wake her up? This is a really, really important meeting, so I need full attendance.”
“Oh, well…” Rumi made a face and shifted awkwardly on the couch. “She’s sort of… not… here?”
“What?” Bobby blinked.
“She didn’t come home last night,” Mira hissed through grit teeth.
“Wh—” Concern doused his face like a splash of cold water as his voice proceeded to go up several octaves. “What does that—somebody call her!”
“On it!” Rumi fished her phone out of the pocket of her pyjama pants.
The front door clicked, and hurried footsteps rattled through the air.
“Sorry! Hi Bobbyyy! I’m here, I’m here!” Zoey wiped sweat from her brow and stumbled into the living room. Still wearing her clothes from the after party, she flopped down on the couch.
“Zoey!” Both of his arms came up in the air, hailing her arrival. “Glad you could make it! Okay, team, we have got to have a talk.”
“Lay it on us, Bobby!” Zoey yawned whilst pumping her fists in the air. She was glowing, even after the long night out.
“Hahahahahaaha, well, if you insist!” He smiled a forced, empty smile.
BANG!
Five sheets of what appeared to be photo print were slapped face-down on the table in front of them.
“We have a PR crisis, and you know I’m all for sex positivity and letting you guys live your lives, but this? This is a problem,” said Bobby, hand still splayed over the sheets.
There was a brief pause.
Both Mira and Zoey’s heads snapped to look at Rumi.
“What did you do?”
“Rumi! With Jinu?! You naughty dogs!”
Rumi’s mouth dropped, heat crawling over her cheeks. “Hey, wait, no! We didn’t… I don’t think… Where would… Someone saw us on the rooftop?!”
Zoey slapped two hands over her mouth and started giggling. Mira smirked, amused, and leaned back against the couch cushions.
“Get it, Rumi.” Mira whistled.
“Oh, she got it. She’s got all the sexy rendezvous, so scandalous!” Zoey laughed.
“…Actually,” Bobby cleared his throat, “Rumi and Jinu aren’t the, uh, scandalous ones…”
Rumi let out a heavy sigh of relief, slumping against the couch as Zoey and Mira exchanged looks. It was down to the two of them.
Slowly, Bobby flipped over the first sheet.
A blurry photo of the back of one of Mira’s hoodies was on it, hood obscuring the head resting on the shoulder of some guy with curly brown hair and a tapered fade. The photo was taken from behind the park bench they were sitting on.
“I didn’t know you were seeing someone!” Rumi gasped at Mira.
“I’m not!” Her eye twitched. She glared menacingly at the photo on the table.
“Then how…?” Rumi raised an eyebrow.
“That’s… me,” Zoey sheepishly confessed.
Mira’s jaw clenched as Rumi’s jaw dropped.
“Since when do you have a boyfriend?” Rumi asked.
“About that…” Bobby said before she could respond.
He carefully revealed the next photo.
A clear shot of Zoey’s profile as she leans to kiss a man with blonde slicked-back hair at a bar.
Zoey fidgeted, twiddling her thumbs with guilty eyes. Rumi inspected the guy in the picture, nodding her respect for Zoey’s pull.
Mira, however, was squinting, slight disgust working its way onto her face, and the look was not lost to Zoey, who noticed and allowed it to further her guilt.
Bobby turned over the third photo.
In it, a woman kissing at Zoey’s neck in an alleyway.
Well, that was new. Both Mira and Rumi cast shocked looks down at the sheet.
“Surprise, I swing both ways!” Zoey glanced nervously around the room as she did some jazz hands to try and lighten the mood.
“Well, you learn something new everyday,” Rumi chuckled, “That’s cool.”
Mira wasn’t surprised at Zoey’s sexuality.
It was more like she was surprised—and swallowing a bitter taste—because of the way Zoey was smiling, enjoying some random woman’s lips on the skin of her neck.
Bobby had a blank expression on his face as he revealed another photo.
Zoey leading a woman with wavy blonde hair out of a restaurant at night, both of them smiling and blushing.
It made Mira’s chest tighten.
Even worse was the little nostalgic expression that was crossing Zoey’s face.
A little smile causing a little more pain to her heart.
The final blow came in the form of the grand finale. Mira was half-tempted to snatch and rip it up before Bobby could turn the image over.
Instead, she clenched her fists and tried not to make a scene.
A disturbingly high-quality photo of Zoey being pinned against a wall by a woman with bright red hair that fell to her waist. Her eyes were shut, lips parted in a gasp.
The woman’s leg was right between her thighs, and two of Zoey’s hands slipped beneath her flimsy top, which was glowing neon pink in the dark. Lights created dashes of color across their skin.
It would’ve been a beautiful scene.
You know.
If the photo didn’t include Zoey, the one person who knew her better than anyone. The girl who was an unexpected heartbreaker, because she craved love, but always lost any prospects for a serious relationship to their hectic work schedule.
“That is… wow.” Rumi blushed and glanced away like it was a hardcore porno.
It was a miracle that the photo didn’t burst into flames under the intensity of Mira’s glare.
“Okay, I know this looks really bad. Guys, I’m so, so, so sorry. Do you think that these are online now? Who am I kidding, they’re definitely online. I’m so sorry. How bad is this? Really bad? Super bad? This is all my fault,” Zoey burst out, tears welling in her eyes.
“No, it’s not. Look, you think Jinu and I haven’t been caught… making out or cuddling or whatever?” Rumi was quick to try her hand at comforting her. “Right, Bobby?”
He shook his head with a heavy sigh, running a hand through his hair. “Rumi, you and Jinu are in an established relationship. The shippers eat up everything you do, within reason. And also? You’ve never been in a… promiscuous position in public.”
Did he not hear the thing about the rooftop?
Mira and Zoey were definitely adding interrogation to their list of things to do, right below a visit to the bathhouse and sorting out the scandal.
“So what are you saying?” Zoey wrung her wrists.
“You need to be a teensy, tiny bit more careful,” Bobby said. “There’s a lot of things going around about you. The heartbreaker rep only works for idols who aren’t… getting involved with other people at all.
And before you say anything, yes, I know that members of Saja Boys do the same thing—if not, much worse. But they’re men and society sucks. And unfortunately, Misogynistic, sucky, terrible society pays to attend your shows.”
“Okay…” Zoey nodded, looking like a puppy in a cardboard box. One that was sitting in the rain on the side of the road.
“So I’ve decided that we need to do a rebrand, just for a little bit.” His voice softened like his eyes.
He loved managing Huntr/x, but he really didn’t like interfering with their identity. There was a big difference between booking venues and telling them how to act.
“Are we all doing a rebrand?” Mira shot him a look of disbelief.
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea.” Rumi frowned.
They only got where they were by being their true, authentic selves. Yeah, the part-demon reveal had taken everyone some getting used to, but that was over a year in the past now.
“No, it—it’s just Zoey,” Bobby answered.
“What?” Her voice came out smaller than she intended.
The last time Zoey had been too much, too weird, was in school. Neither America nor Korea wanted her as she was.
Huntr/x was where she didn’t have to choose a side. Where she could be loved for being everything.
”I don’t want to do this to you, but I don’t know if we have a choice right now. After talking with at least a dozen other industry professionals who have dealt with this, I really think that we need to push your sweet, loving side and have you settle down,” Bobby explained before taking a lengthy sip of his coffee.
They hadn’t even noticed it before, but it had been sitting on the far end of the table, out of the way of the photos.
“Settle down?” Zoey repeated.
“Yeah, what?” Rumi raised an eyebrow.
Mira, however, remained quiet. She had a feeling she knew where this was going.
“I went and spoke with the Saja Boys. Mystery and Baby both happily volunteered to enter a relationship with you,” Bobby said carefully.
Rumi simply looked at Zoey, legs crossed and hands folded in her lap. She was ready to be supportive of whatever decision her groupmate made.
Mira, however, was fighting every urge to get up and go for a walk, a run, anything to escape the suffocating room.
The tension was thick, and she knew that Zoey had always been attracted to Mystery.
There was an obvious choice. But no way did she want to hear his name come out of Zoey’s mouth.
“I tried to talk to other idol groups, but there weren’t any women who wanted to be in an openly queer relationship.” Bobby’s expression was nothing short of apologetic. “So… Mystery and Baby are your options.
Obviously, you don’t have to do anything physical. It would just be for the public. A few appearances together, a dinner date or two.”
“I—what? You mean like fake dating?” Zoey’s eyebrows scrunched together.
Fake dating.
One of the most cliche, but delicious tropes to read. She had at least 50 different fake dating AUs bookmarked in her phone, and if she weren’t so busy writing banger songs, she would’ve probably specialized in writing fake dating fanfiction.
“That’s the simplest way to put it, yes.” Bobby smiled and took another sip of coffee.
His eyes scanned hers, looking for any sort of strong opposition.
He would fight the public for her if it came down to it, but he had just managed to keep three major news outlets from leaking the photos of Zoey.
If she was in a relationship in public, then at least she might do a better job of keeping her actual love life private.
“I don’t know,” Zoey muttered, lips pressed into a flat line.
“Mystery’s your type, right? Isn’t this kinda perfect?” Rumi said gently.
“I mean… yeah, but…” she trailed off. Her shiny eyes searched for sharp, intense ones. “What do you think, Mira?”
But Mira struggled to look at her. Instead, she kept her gaze locked on Bobby. “I think it’s a stupid idea. What is this, a poorly written fanfic? Zoey can… She doesn’t need a weird little demon boy to save her reputation.”
Zoey’s eyes glittered, sparkled at her. When she realized that Mira was pointedly avoiding her, her face fell.
“Look, I know this is a tough decision, but…”
Bobby’s words were lost on Mira’s ears.
All she could think about was Zoey and Mystery. Mystery and Zoey.
Imagine the headlines.
Her stomach churned.
Huntr/x Lead Rapper Caught Canoodling with Saja Boy!
Extra, extra, read all about it—Mystery and Zoey, the Perfect Match!
All she could see was Zoey’s hand on his sleeve, her smile and laugh directed toward him and him alone.
She saw Zoey holding hands with him as they went on dates to see turtles or attended meet-and-greets together.
Mystery would be a prince.
A perfect prince with his calm demeanor, nothing like Mira’s wild one.
He’d have his lips on Zoey’s soft skin.
Maybe she’d wrap her arms around his neck and whisper her feelings.
And he would be soft and sensitive, vulnerable in the way that Mira struggled to be.
His hands would slip over her waist and beneath Zoey’s waistband.
The intrusive mental image had Mira’s stomach cold and twisting into knots.
“I’ll do it.”
Mira’s heart dropped through her chest and tumbled to the ground. She could see it, splattering and leaving permanent stains.
Zoey’s people pleasing reared its ugly head.
Anyone could tell by the look on her face that she wasn’t thrilled, far from it.
“Are you sure?” Bobby stared at his coffee for a second, then met her eyes.
“Yes,” Zoey took a deep breath, “I don’t want to be the reason everyone is dragged into drama. I can handle a rebrand, easy. I mean, I live two lives already. A third isn’t a big deal.”
“You don’t have to, if you don’t want to,” Rumi said, trying to gauge whether or not she needed to be encouraged or discouraged.
“It’s fine! I think… Mystery is who I’ll go with, if you could please let him know.” She looked at Bobby with a plastic smile.
“He’s a good guy,” Rumi commented weakly, unsure of what else to say.
“Okay! Well, that’s settled. I’ll let him know, and I’ll arrange a meeting so we can go over the contract I’ll finish drafting by tonight.” Bobby slapped both of his knees and nodded.
“Wait.” Mira turned her head to finally meet Zoey’s eyes.
It was electrifying, the way it felt to be seen by her.
Zoey answered her with a confused hum. It was the first time her nervous fidgeting had stopped that morning.
All eyes fell on Mira.
Her heart pounded in her chest, and what she was about to say was probably a bad idea. It was probably a really bad idea, but she didn’t owe anyone an explanation.
“I’ll do it.”