Page 30 of Fallen Starboy

Chapter

Twenty-Five

ARISTA

“He’ll be fine, but he’s going to be out of commission for a few months at least, if not longer. Lucky it didn’t hit anything vital.”

The doctor puttered around his bedside, checking vitals, feeling his skin, checking him over with a satisfied murmur. I, on the other hand, was a wreck.

If I closed my eyes, I could still see the whole thing in real time.

The strange man heading right for us. The widening of Jun’s eyes as he registered the man heading right for us.

The feeling of being smashed against his chest as we spun around.

The way my lungs burst into flames trying to force air in and out as I hyperventilated.

The blood running down the white shirt now sticking to his torso.

The panic and fear that raced through me when he collapsed in my arms.

“You’re very lucky he took that bullet for you. With the height difference between you two, it would have likely hit you square in the forehead.”

Pujin stepped through the door, his face screwed up into a frown of disapproval. I hardly registered his presence enough to offer him a nod.

“I shouldn’t have sent you with the new guys.” He paced on the left of Jun’s bed, staring down at his boss as if waiting to be reprimanded. “I should have made sure you all were safe.”

“You were protecting Yejin, which is exactly where Jun wanted you, Pujin,” I whispered, hating that she was now curled up on the nearby chair, her hair in a messy bun, hugging her dad’s microphone like a lifeline.

I didn’t have the heart to take it from her when she showed up holding it, with Pujin in tow.

She looked so innocent, so sure of herself as she stepped up to her dad’s bedside and insisted he’d be fine with a little rest.

The doctor had thankfully not mentioned him being shot in front of her. All she knew was he got hurt at work.

“I’m so sorry, Miss Simmons?—”

“I’m not the one who got shot, Pujin,” I pointed out, wincing at the reminder. “You don’t owe me an apology for doing your job.”

My phone chose that moment to start singing, in the familiar tone of the label. Fuck me, when it rains, it pours. “I’ve gotta take this?—”

“Miss Ari? Please don’t go,” Yejin mumbled from her chair, still half asleep.

I settled back in my seat and nodded to her, smiling as best as I could. “I’ll be right here, Yejin.”

“Kay.” Her eyes drifted shut again and she smiled in her sleep.

I opened the phone just before whoever was on the other end of the line decided to hang up. “Simmons.”

“Rizzo, hey. How’s the starboy doing?” Of course. Brady, in Public Relations, was already abreast of the intel, and likely was calling to see how much of a pain the PR campaign was about to be. “And you, of course, dear. I hope you’re both resting and recovering well.”

“Jun took a bullet, you insensitive prick,” I spat, at my wits end and not in the mood to deal with his shit. “He’s in a hospital bed. I’m physically fine, thanks to him.”

“Sorry, didn’t mean to come off like a jerk, dear,” he insisted, turning on his media blitz voice. “How is everything? Is there anything we can do for you?”

Code for how are we planning to spin this shit show, of course.

“Keep the details to a minimum. They apprehended the shooter. His old label has already been implicated, but the company isn’t planning to release that, as the police have opened an investigation.

The man has a track record, and the news will likely blow it up to twice the size it really is to make him look truly horrendous.

Jun is stable, he took the bullet in the shoulder.

But he’ll be out of commission for a while.

That means the label will have to cancel his appearances for the next few weeks at least, and limit it to light work for a month or so after that, until his doctors clear him for return to active duty on the roster. ”

“Have you notified the label?” I didn’t bother to respond with the obvious answer. I mean, fuck, come on, dude, how do you think you found out? “Sorry, that was stupid, obviously you did.”

“Listen, Brady, is there anything else important that I can help you with?” My eyes drifted to Jun, whose body was as still as a stone on the thin hospital mattress.

“Do you know who might fill his slots that the company announced today for a continental tour?”

I sighed. “Brady, I’m a liaison, not a manager. Maybe you should ask the label who they plan to fill his spot with.”

“Well, I tried that. They suggested you might have a few prospects you could mention to us, that way we can start reaching out to gauge interest.”

“You think I just walk around with a contact list full of Asian idols that I can whip out to pull strings from?” Tangled knots caught my fingers as I carded them through my loose hair in frustration.

“Brady, I have no fucking idea who might be willing to sign temporarily and fill his slot while he recovers.”

“I might know a guy.”

I spun on my heel as Jun’s voice echoed around me, rough but strong, accompanied with a rouge-ish smile that melted me and had me blinking back tears. “You’re awake!”

He held his hand out as if he wasn’t sitting there with his other one in a sling, a bandage over a now-stitched gunshot wound. “Let me talk to him.”

I was too stunned to tell him no or insist that he rest instead. I just held out the phone for him to take from me, staring blankly as he brought it to his ear and smiled, clearing his throat.

“Brady, was it? Kim Seo-Jun.” He paused, listening for a moment as Brady likely melted down in his ear. “Yes, well I’m just glad we’re all still alive. Thanks. Now about a filler?—”

Two minutes later, Jun was handing the phone back, having placated Brady with promises to reach out to a few friends in the industry who might be interested in a change.

The second my phone was back in my hand, his was magically appearing in its place, whipped out as he scrolled through his contacts.

He fired off a few text messages, then set it down, turning his attention on me.

I was still rooted to the spot where I’d turned around to find him awake and smiling.

He held out his good arm and the corner of his lips curled up playfully. “Come here, Ari.”

It was damn near impossible to be gentle as I sagged into his embrace, all the worry and fear and agony bleeding from me like a flood bursting through a dam.

I sobbed into his hospital gown for almost a solid five minutes, unable to stop, unable to care how bad it made me look, how pathetic.

His hand slid up to the back of my head and smoothed my hair, soaking up the wetness as if it were nothing to him.

When I could find my breath again, when I wasn’t afraid I might break down just by looking at him, I lifted my eyes and peeled away from his pecs, hoping I didn’t look like a total mess but knowing damn well I probably resembled a red-eyed raccoon.

“You are an idiot, Kim Seo-Jun.”

His brows lifted as he regarded me in confusion. “Well, that’s not exactly what I hoped to hear from you when I woke up.”

“Why would you do that? Step in front of a fucking bullet?—”

He leaned forward, wincing as his lips captured mine in a soft kiss.

It was barely there, but it was enough to silence me and my mounting protests.

When he pulled back, I glanced over to where Yejin lay, breathing a sigh of relief that she was still off in dreamland.

Pujin was standing against the wall, head down, waiting for Jun to spot him and say something. Jun ? —

“I would do it again and again, a million times over, Ari. I’d do it for you.”

I blinked back more tears, sniffling very unladylike. “Why?”

“Because I fucking love you, woman.” His stare was filled with frustration, as if I should have known that. “What other reason do I need?”

“Jun,” I started again, breath catching in the back of my throat. “I’m not that important.”

His lips drooped as those beautiful, perfectly sculpted brows sank in a frown. “You are to me. To our daughter. And that’s what matters most.” His eyes scanned the room, softening when they landed on Yejin. “How is she taking it?”

“She doesn’t know much, so she’s convinced you’ll be fine. She thinks you got hurt at work.”

“Probably for the best,” he remarked dryly, watching her sleep. “Pujin?”

I nodded to the corner. “Beating himself up.”

The next ten minutes were filled with Jun and Pujin going back and forth over whose fault was what, and how much punishment Pujin deserved for allegedly not being able to predict the future. He and Jun went in circles until Yejin woke up, and then the argument was shelved for another time.

Yejin was ecstatic to see her father up and talking, a smile on his face.

She rained kiss after kiss on him until she tired of their game and complained her stomach was trying to eat itself alive.

When I offered to take her to the cafeteria, Jun declined, demanding a wheelchair for himself.

The nurses were leery of his request, but as I knew from experience, nobody says no to Kim Seo-Jun.

When he wants something, he’ll get it, one way or another.

Which is how I found myself wheeling him down the hall, Yejin at his side, at 3am, heading for the after hours section of the cafeteria.

“Yejin,” he began once we’d settled at a table by the windows that overlooked the city. “I have something to tell you, baby girl.”

Yejin sat up straighter, shoving the entire chicken tender in her mouth with a grin. “Mmm?”

He looked at me for a second, his eyes uncertain. “It’s about your mother.”

Yejin looked bored, her gaze flitting between me and Jun as she reached for a french fry. “Miss Ari is my mother.”

I blinked in surprise, and Jun was, for once in his life, speechless. “What did you say, Yejin?”

Her innocence radiated like a second sun in the darkness as she reached up and ran her fingers through my hair.

“You have the same kind of hair as me. And none of my daddy’s friends have hair like that.

” She pointed to my freckles. “We have these, too.” Her hand reached for mine, and the innocent child suddenly looked wise beyond her years.

“Besides. I heard daddy talking to you in the kitchen the other day. You were arguing over me. I’m seven, not stupid. ”

Jun burst out laughing, doubling over to hide his wince of pain. “Oh my god, she’s definitely mine,” he wheezed, clapping his knee with his good hand. “Fucking hell, Ari, and I was worried about telling her?—”

“Does this mean I can call you my mom?”

My breath caught in my throat. “Call—what?”

Yejin just repeated herself with all the patience of a saint. “Can I call you my mom?”

Jun stared at her blankly. I fought not to get my hopes up. “Only if you want to. I wouldn’t want you to do it to make either of us happy.”

“I want to.” She grabbed my hand and Jun’s, holding us together like a unit.

A family. “I always wanted a mom. Uncle Minseo said you were dead, but I knew better. Daddy always looked at him like he wanted to beat him up when he said that. And Uncle Jinnie always said I’d meet you someday.

” Her eyes sparkled with happiness. “I think it’ll be pretty cool to have you for a mom. ”

I didn’t know what to say, so I just let the tears fall, determined to live up to this little angel’s expectations of me.

It would be hard, but I’d do it. I’d make up for every minute I missed, every memory she lacked, if it took me until I died to do it.

I’d been given a second chance. I wasn’t about to waste it.

“It’ll be an honor to be your mom.”

Her grin turned playful, teasing almost, as she looked back over at her dad. “I think you should be Daddy’s wife, too. Then we can be a real family.”

It was Jun’s turn to choke as the words registered in his brain. “Yejin?—”

I winked at her, a smile plastered to my face. “I don’t think your daddy can handle me as a wife.”

“If that’s a challenge, woman?—”