Chapter Text
Celine blinked, and blinked again.
What?
"Oh, it's down now?"
"Looks like it."
"There's no way it's down." Celine muttered, refreshing her screen.
Yeah, no, the website was definitely down for maintenance. She forgot it was today.
Well, she should at the very least do something as she waited for it to get done.
"What are you doing?" Celine heard from behind her as she walked towards a shelf filled with binders and folders, with something taped in the shelves.
Reading, of course. She thought, grabbing a folder and going back to her seat.
For an hour, it was quiet. She kept reading other binders and folders
Ding! Celine blinked before she looked at her pocket. Her phone was being sent notifications for a few moments, and it kept continuing as she vaguely felt the girls' emotions through the Honmoon.
What the fuck? She thought, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion. She could vaguely feel Zoey's desperation for something, while Rumi's panicking and... Mira's laughing? Probably?
She should probably call them to make sure they're oka—
Riiing! riiing!
"Oh damn so it's important?" She muttered, pulling out her phone and blinking in surprise when it wasn't any of the girls.
It was Bobby.
She hit call and brought to her ear. "Bobby? Why are you calling?"
Bobby's voice came through the phone with a nervous and panicked tone. "Don't freak out when I say this but mmmaybe don't check social media for a while?"
Silence.
She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "I am going to need you to further explain why before I get killed again but from my curiosity." She groaned. Was it a scandal? A rumor? Something that got too far?
"The fans are seeing Zoey parkour across rooftops and she's heading to the main building, Mira's speeding on the road with your motorcycle—" MY WHAT? "and Rumi's somehow suddenly near the building and going in despite being far away a few minutes ago. She scaled a building with her hands, by the way."
She pulled her phone away from surprise.
What the fuck was going on?
"I— Mi-yeong is your kid supposed to be like that?"
"NO???? CELINE DID YOU TEACH HER???"
"Well yes I taught her to do that but not infront of people." She hissed at the voices.
"Celine?"
"Bothi— I mean nothing, Bobby." Celine corrected herself, bringing the phone back to her ear. "Is there... any idea why they're reacting like that?" She asked, her ears twitching.
"Well, Zoey's vague tweets are definitely doing nothing to why she's about to tackle you, we're trying to find out— actually what binders is she talking about? She's going to tackle you for binders."
That did not narrow shit down. It did, but barely. Actually wait no it not narrow it down at all.
"Alright, then it's probably some minor event that's important to her and she needs proof of something." As Celine finished speaking, she could hear yelling and a few crashes on the floor below her.
She furrowed her eyebrows. "Bobby I'll call you back." "WAIT CELINE NO—" She hung up.
The Honmoon pulsed beneath her rapidly, as if something was running towards a human— it wasn't red, so maybe a half-demon? Do other half-demons exist?
No. How unfortunate. Oh, nevermind then.
She got up from her chair and walked towards the door, opening it and getting out if her office and down the hall towards the elevator.
My employees wouldn't mind if I check on them again, right? She thought, lifting her finger—
The elevator had already started going up before she even pressed it.
She blinked as she heard panicked voices coming closer.
"Honmoon, is this dangerous or..?" She muttered, looking at the blue threads that dimmed.
"...Okay, never mind. I'm going back." She spoke, turning around and walking back towards her office.
"You think the security team has it under control?"
"Perhaps." Celine shrugged. "If it was a criminal in the elevator, I'd apprehend them anyway."
"Yeah, after you either move like Batman and the Winter Soldier at the same time or get bitten again, Cece!"
"Wait— Mi, it's going higher?"
Wow she should really find meds that work on her.
She could the elevator doors open behind her and—
Thump thump thump thump thump thumpthumpthumpthuMPTHUMP—
What? She thought, sparks of starlight emittng from her palms before she turned around.
What the fuc—?
"CELINE! HIT THE DECK—!"
Something lunged at Celine, entering her fight or flight instincts almost immediately.
She looked towards their direction before she got tackled, rolling along the floor with whoever tackled and getting ready to kick and bite them like the fake demon she was OH MY GOD SHUT UP GWI-MA.
"Where are the binders!?" The person who tackled her exclaimed as they pulled her shirt's collar. They had a feminine voice and black hair tied up in—
"Zoey?" Celine exclaimed in confusion, her eyes wide. "I— what?"
"The BINDERS, Celine! BINDERS!!!" She shook her mentor rapidly, slightly hysterical.
Celine sputtered in disbelief at how Zoey was acting. "What binders are you even talking about!? The ones I have for a person's chest!?"
"NO I MEAN THE BINDERS FOR THE PRINTED SHIT!"
"WHAT PRINTED SHEET???" What the fuck was going on?! Bobby didn't warn her on how she'll act!
A moment after grabbing Celine and yelling at her, Zoey was pulled away almost like a cartoon character, getting slightly strangled by her own shirt collar as Rumi pulled her away in a panic and went between them.
Mira was behind Zoey, holding her by the back, she was looking away and her shoulders were shaking.
"Gimme the fucking binders." Zoey demanded, zeroing on Celine.
"Do you know how little that sentence narrows it down?" Celine held her hands up. "I do not even know what binders you are talking about, Zoey!"
"THE FANFIC BINDERS!" She screeched as Mira was now hugging her torso so she wouldn't lunge at the old woman, Rumi still between them. "I KNOW YOU HAVE FANFIC BINDERS, CELINE! YOU SHOWED US IT WHEN WE HAVEN'T DEBUTED YET!"
"Jagiya calm down that's literally our mentor—" Mira wheezed.
"By the Honmoon I thought you forgot about that." Celine spoke, her eye twitching.
Rumi glanced at her mom. "Well, can we read the binders? We read the ones we've printed out already, eomma. I think Zoey reread half of it like, three times."
"Yeah, Celine." Mira nodded, still holding a struggling Zoey that was suspiciously starting to speak English and Spanish instead of Korean. "Actually, can we just read all of it? You've been in websites since it came out, right? Can we also read your own stories?"
Celine stayed silent.
She wanted to tell them that yes, of course you can read the binders, I have a shelf full of it, would you like to see?
But as she thought of a proper answer, she began to remember what were the printed fanfics. And as much as all of it would make Zoey deem it as "Absolutely amazing"...
...
She opened her mouth.
"I apologize, girls, but you'll have to pry those binders from my permanently dead hands."
Bobby stared at the video that was circulating around the internet— mostly Twitter and TikTok.
The PR team was in shambles, and the damage control wasn't helping at all, it just kept making the fans create weird theories on what was going on. Even Bobby himself didn't know why they wanted to read some binders, were those documents? Concepts? Blackmail?
He sighed heavily as he covered his eyes.
"I love my girls, but no wonder Celine raised my paycheck to 3.5 this week..." he groaned out.
He really wanted Celine to lessen his pay, he's already a millionaire because of it! Donating half of it to charity every time doesn't help at all!