“I don’t know what to say,” Appa says, his expression a mirror of Leah’s. A huge smile spreads across his face. “This is an amazing opportunity for me.”

“Yes, an amazing opportunity,” Umma agrees, but her eyes flash with anger. She may be fooling Mr. Choo and Mina with her pear slices and gracious-hostess demeanor, but I know her. Inside she is seething at being caught off guard with the news that Appa has been going to law school.

“Wait, so Appa is going to work for Mr. Choo as a lawyer?” Leah asks, waving her hands in excitement. Melted ice cream goes splattering all over the floor, but no one notices. “Whoa! That’s huge!”

Mr. Choo laughs good-naturedly, but his eyes are cold, calculating. “It is indeed an incredible opportunity. We’re all family at the Choo Corporation. Now you’ll all be part of the family too. Forever linked.”

Why does that sound like a threat?

I get a sudden flashback of Kang Jina’s warning to watch out for Mr. Choo. My mind flits from all the SPONSORED BY C-MART FAMILY signs I’ve seen at DB to the Choo Corporation plane we flew to Toronto for the tour to the many times I’ve heard him explode in anger toward Mina.

My stomach sinks. He’s a powerful man and not one to be trifled with. I don’t like the sound of being linked forever with him or his corporation. I know what that really means. We’re not family.

They own us.

Mr. Choo rises, extending his hand to Appa. “I’ll have someone come by with paperwork soon. I’m sorry I can’t stay longer to chat today, but business calls, as always.”

“Of course, of course,” Appa says. He and Umma both stand, shaking his hand. “Thank you so much again. I’m honored.”

Leah and I both rise to bow to Mr. Choo, but my fists are clenched by my sides. He gives us a nod and heads for the door. Appa and Umma follow after him to see him out, accidentally stepping into Leah’s sticky ice-cream puddle and leaving melon-green footprints all over the floor.

They don’t even realize the mess they’ve just stepped into.

“Well, this is brilliant, isn’t it?” Mina says brightly, munching on a pear slice. “We’ll all be one big happy family now. And, Rachel, you know I’ve been dying to meet your little sister.”

“Really? You have?” Leah says, her eyes widening. She’s heard enough stories about Mina from me that she’s got her guard up, but I can see that she’s flattered by the idea of Mina wanting to meet her. I take a protective step toward her, glaring at Mina.

“Of course,” Mina says. “I’ve always wished that I had a younger sister. So many of the unnis in Electric Flower treat me like a little sister, and I want to pay it forward. They give me the best advice.” She drops her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “Just between you and me, though, some of those unnis could really take their own advice. They’re always telling me to take care of my health, but I happen to know that one of the girls sews candy into the sleeves of all her stage outfits because she has such a huge sweet tooth. Now, I don’t want to throw her under the bus, but Joo Semy should really be careful. I heard DB is spending a small fortune on her yearly dental bills.”

Leah’s eyes are practically bugging out of her head with glee. I can see her walls coming down as she leans toward Mina. “No way.”

“Yes way.”

I want to scream. This can’t be happening.

“Anyway, I should get going too.” She smiles at me. “Walk me to the elevator, Rachel?”

“My pleasure,” I say through gritted teeth.

She says goodbye to Leah and my parents as we walk out to the elevator. As soon as the front door shuts behind us, her face lights up with a self-satisfied evil smirk.

“I don’t know why you’re doing this, Mina, but I’m going to tell my dad everything. There’s no way he’ll take the job after he hears what an awful person you are.”

“Ah, ah, Rachel. You heard my dad—we’re all one big happy family now. Proper respect must be paid. And we both know how much this job means to your father. You wouldn’t want to do anything to ruin that for him, would you?”

I narrow my eyes at her, my body temperature skyrocketing. As much as I want to burst into my apartment and tell Appa everything, I know I can’t. This job is everything to him.

“So how did you and Jason celebrate the big news in New York?” Mina asks, interrupting the dark spiral of thoughts crowding inside my brain.

“Celebrate?” I blink, momentarily forgetting everything about the tour. New York suddenly feels light-years away. “Oh, you mean hitting number one on the K-pop charts?”

She cocks her head to the side, raising her eyebrows as she punches the down button on the elevator. “No, that’s not the news I meant.”

My brow furrows, and a delighted smile spreads across her face.

“You mean you don’t know?” she says, hardly able to contain her pleasure at my dumbfounded expression. “Oh, Princess Rachel, still so much to learn about the world.” She takes her phone out of her pocket. She turns the screen to face me, and I realize it’s Leah’s favorite K-pop gossip site. Headline after headline pops up on the screen, and I squint as I take them all in.

JASON LEE GOING SOLO!

NEXT BOYZ NO MORE! LONG LIVE JASON LEE.

DB EXCITED TO EXPLORE MUSICAL FUTURE WITH NEWLY SOLO ARTIST JASON LEE.

I stand there, my head spinning as the elevator doors open. “Thanks for seeing me out, Rachel,” she says as the doors slide shut, a wicked smile lighting up her face. “And hey. Welcome home.”

Twenty-Four

I stare at the closed elevator doors, unable to move. Jason is going solo? Why didn’t he tell me? This is huge!

I call him, wanting to be one of the first to congratulate him and ask him how it all happened, but it goes straight to voice mail. I send him a Kakao message, tapping my foot against the floor. After a minute of no reply, I can’t wait any longer.

When in doubt, turn to Instagram.

I type “#JasonLee” in the search bar, and immediately, a string of photos pops up, posted by stalker fans from just five minutes ago, of him entering a familiar-looking building.

DB headquarters.

I don’t even realize that I’m still wearing my sloppy airplane clothes and candy-striped house slippers as I run out of the apartment toward the nearest subway station. But my body is buzzing with excitement and there’s only one thought in my brain: I need to see Jason.

As soon as I hop on the subway, my phone starts buzzing furiously in my pocket. Thinking it’s Jason calling me back, I scramble to grab my phone, nearly sending it flying across the subway car. But it’s not Jason.

It’s Akari. Hey, can you talk?

I can almost feel my brain crunching to a stop inside my head as I stare at her text, all thoughts of Jason zooming away. Akari hasn’t spoken to me since that day outside Yujin’s office. My fingers hover above the keyboard on my phone. There’s so much to tell her I don’t even know where to start. Or how. I’m just about to start typing when suddenly a teen girl sitting across from me on the subway looks up at me, her eyes widening in recognition. She leans over to her friend and whispers, “That’s her! That’s the girl! It’s Jason’s lover!”