Page 38 of K-Pop Double Life

She looked up, pen resting in the groove of the notebook’s spine. “Radio and television interviews are pre-scheduled, location is confirmed forty-eight hours out. Print and online features come through Eun-ji’s office, and the approved journalist is credentialed through Starhouse. That credential gets them past the perimeter, to a designated interview room. The members move from their holding area to the interview room and back. They don’t pass through public space.”

“Who issues the journalist credentials?”

“My office,” Eun-ji said. “The request comes in, my team verifies against the publication’s masthead, I approve, and Grace coordinates the logistics. Arrival time, escort from the lobby, which member or members they’re seeing.”

I looked at Grace. “So you receive the final approved credential and manage movement on the day.”

“Yes. I’m usually the first person the journalist meets. I escort them to the room, stay for the interview in case translation is needed, and escort them back out.”

“Going forward,” I said, “any journalist who hasn’t been through the standard verification process gets a secondary check. Even if they’re already credentialed. One phone call, twenty minutes. Non-negotiable.”

Grace wrote that down: left column, two lines. She underlined something.

“Any questions before I continue?”

The technical director asked, “Any changes to what we do at rehearsal?”

“I’m sure you already do, but double-check all the mechanics—the lighting grid, the parts of the stage that go up and down, and the props that fly in from the site.”

Du-ri, the wardrobe mistress, raised her hand. “The costume transport between venues — is that changing?”

“It’s under review.” I made a note. “Sunny, I want you to sit down with Aidan and me about that. The transport chain has some gaps we’ll want to walk through.”

She nodded, and wrote something on her printed agenda.

“The broader picture,” I said. “Someone is planning something. Our thinking is that since they didn’t get what they wanted in Cannes, they’re recalibrating. That means we have time, but not unlimited time.”

I looked around the table. “I need everyone in this room paying attention to things that seem slightly off. Not wrong, not alarming. Just slightly off. A person you don’t recognize in a space where they should be recognizable. A question someone asks that’s more specific than it needs to be. A schedule detail mentioned somewhere it shouldn’t have been mentioned.”

The room was very quiet.

“We are not a police investigation,” I said. “We are a security team protecting five people. That means our job is to narrow the space in which something can go wrong. Every person in this room helps do that by being present and paying attention.”

I looked at Grace. “Aidan will send you the written protocol summary after this. You shouldn’t have to work from handwritten notes.”

She looked up from her notebook. “Thank you.” A brief pause, pen still in her hand. “Should I be translating all of this for the members, or a simplified version?”

“Simplified,” I said. “They need to know the procedures that affect them directly. They don’t need to know the full threat picture before a show.” I picked up my notes. “I’ll give you a summary sheet. Work from that.”

She nodded and went back to writing.

Eun-ji closed her tablet. “Are we done?”

“One more thing.” I waited until I had the whole table. “Nobody discusses this outside this room. Not with other staff, not with the members’ families, not with anyone who wasn’t here today. If you receive a question about security arrangements from anyone, including people at Starhouse who outrank you, you refer them to me or to Sunny.”

A beat of silence. “We’re done,” I said.

14

BREAKING POINT

SANG-HOON — PARIS

The meeting broke up with the usual scrape of chairs and rustle of papers. Aidan and Liam stayed behind with Sun-hee-noona, discussing security staffing for London. The rest of us drifted toward the hallway.

“Hey, Sang-hoon.” Mina waved me over, grinning as she held up her phone. “You’ve become famous.”

I frowned. “What?”