Chapter 9

“How are you feeling now? I heard what happened yesterday, and I thought that it might have done something to you.”

“It really did, for starters,” Kevin answered with honesty, forming a bitter smile across his lips. “I don’t know where they got the details of myself in the past, but that is somewhat disturbing me until now.”

“It really is, even for us,” James answered, immediately having a deep voice, thinking about the time that the news has reached them. “It came as news, and it must be a work from another company, trying to drag the two of us down.”

“They must have been a brilliant bunch if they somehow pull such a huge string on the five of us, what happened to us in the past.”

“It must be our former manager then.”

“Let us not accuse people until we get to a solid answer,” Kevin halted James from thinking such things. They then resumed their silence, with the former reminiscing about his long day yesterday. While thinking about it, he felt a presence that was so familiar to him by the door across from where he was seated. He looked to the side and there was Gwen, who seemed like looking at him.

James followed in the direction where he was looking and observed that when the two of them locked eyes with each other, the woman went the other way and walked away while Kevin’s hand was about to reach out to her, trying to get her to him.

He was just silent, watching the old friend be distracted from their conversation, and had a clear look of sadness on his face as he tries to watch the woman walk away from him.

“That woman that passed by,” he said to him, initiating another topic of their conversation, talking about the woman that passed just now on them. “She looks like an important person to you.”

“She really is,” Kevin admitted, then showed the ring to him. James was surprised about the ring that was showcased in front of him, being worn around his ring finger. “After all, she is my fiancée.”

“Look at you now, huh,” James chucklingly teased him, pushing his shoulders lightly. “Going to be a husband to a woman already. You must be so lucky that you are able to bounce from your past.”

“I can’t exactly call it a bounce from what happened to me last time, you know.”

“They don’t even know what truly happened to you back then, they don’t have the right to judge you for it.”

“They will be,” Kevin answered, throwing his back gently at the chair and relaxing his neck while looking at the ceiling. “After all, the generation of fans that we have today is very different from what we used to have.”

“I could not agree more,” James agreed with him and put his head on the table, closing his eyes and trying not to show any annoyance from the fangirls that he has at the next table that they are just sitting across. “I don’t know about it, but you know, I would like it if they just left us alone and be there whenever when we post something or release a song.”

“That is tough for you, huh?”

“Not just me,” James replied, shaking his head, and remembering the members who were with him. “It is also the four of us. This might be the cost of being too famous and the music that we have been doing through the years.”

“Getting your privacy treated as another piece of work and getting capitalized on?”

He snapped his fingers, nodding his head at him. “Exactly. That is why, even though we are not saying this and discussing it with the board, we are getting tired of this… whole music gig.”

Kevin was just silent, only realizing that his former mates were now in the pinch of their career at its peak.

“What are you going to do now? Are you going to announce a hiatus soon?”

“Hiatus? We are going to get killed by our manager if we do that,” James laughed as he said his response to Kevin. After the laughter came, the sorrow in his eyes appeared, seemingly wanting to take a break from what he is doing as a professional. “I hope we can have the same will as you, like what you did before.”

“Embarrassing yourself and getting your past dug?”

“I just don’t want to have our fame and talents gone to waste if we are already draining ourselves.”

“I can’t say that it is a good idea to do such a thing that will injure your career.”

“It is pretty ironic, you know,” James chuckled as he picked up a tissue at the side of his seat and tried to fold it in half little by little. “I came here to check on you, see how you are doing, but I have been doing the exact opposite.”

“It is all right with me,” Kevin answered, flashing him a small smile. “Maybe this is a time for us to face the ghosts of our pasts and realize the mistakes that we made along the way.”

“But it isn’t fair, you know? We should be having these… facing our past and our mistakes a long time ago and fixing them. Not now, when we are having the time of our lives.”

“Maybe we were so stubborn and fixated on being the best that we forgot our mistakes along the way. The best we can do is to reflect on our actions and try to be better than before.”

“I just wish by the end of the day; we will meet with a smile and relief on our faces.”

Kevin chuckled as soon as he heard his friend, nodding, agreeing with him. “We can never tell, but I hope we can cover and fix this issue we have.”

“That is, it for me, then,” James said and stood up, ready to leave. Kevin looked at his watch and saw that the time was almost near the meeting time. He also stood up and was about to go with James toward the exit, but he stopped him.

“I can do this, man,” he assured him and tapped on his shoulder. “You go with your meeting, and with the… beautiful secretary of yours.”

Kevin raised an eyebrow at him, smirking. “You have an interest in my secretary, don’t you?”

“Interest? No, man,” James denied his teasing, lightly punching him. “I just found her a little cute last night and the way she looked at me earlier.”

“You might want to hold on to those feelings of yours,” Kevin warned him as they reached the door and were about to split up. “You are an idol, and everything you do will be monitored by the media.”

“I know,” James answered him, looking back and waving at his friend. “I try not to have any personal feelings with anyone at the moment.”