It took until the afternoon to see flashing lights of red and blue swarm the set. Uniformed officers moved to their one and only target—Victor Lim.
“No! This is a mistake!” Victor screamed, some saliva escaping his dirty mouth.
He thrashed against the firm grip of the two officers at his sides, but it was no use. “I said this is a mistake! Where is my lawyer? Do you know who he is? He’s one of the highest-paid ones in the profession!”
“Call him now! This cannot be happening—”
The crew watched from the sides, none of them daring to come close. However, it was obvious that most of them were watching him with disdain. Sangwon turned to the side and quickly left the scene, not wanting to get involved further.
Those who had once feared Victor also watched him with disgust.
“This is slander!” Victor screamed. “Everything is fabricated. Get my legal team NOW!”
However, no one moved. Devon merely watched him with his jaw set tight.
Phones came up, and they began filming the scene.
Victor hated everything. He hated how every stare now looked at him like he was filth.
Victor continued to thrash, managing to wrench himself partially free from one of the officers.
The second officer grabbed him, but Victor broke into a dash. In his pursuit of escaping, he saw a figure standing calmly at the edge of the crowd.
Zeno.
He stood with his hands inside his pockets, and Victor felt like immense rage.
“You!” he snarled and lunged forward. Despite the handcuffs on his wrists, he managed to grab the front of Zeno’s shirt and clung to his collar.
The police were quickly behind him. “Sir! Let go! Back away.”
However, Victor merely clung tighter to Zeno, his eyes becoming wild.
“You ruined everything!” Victor exclaimed. “Everything I built and planned! You. You did this!”
Zeno stared at him with slight amusement. Victor hated it even more that Zeno towered over him height-wise.
Just then, Zeno finally spoke.
“You determined your own future, Boomin,” he said softly.
The name struck him like a whip. Victor’s eyes widened, and his grip faltered. “What did you just call me?” he muttered.
Zeno didn’t answer anymore, and in that moment, Victor’s pupils dilated as a familiar face overlapped with Zeno’s.
“S-sanjae?” he choked out.
The police officers finally pulled him back, but Victor was still out of it.
“No,” he murmured. “No. No. You can’t be.”
“You’re dead! We buried you!”
His voice cracked as it rose into a scream. “YOU’RE DEAD!”
At that moment, Victor lost control. He trashed and screamed, spit flying as he struggled against the officers.
He dropped to his knees and still reached at Zeno with a clawed hand.
“Check him for drugs,” one officer muttered. “He’s lost it.”
“Restrain him better!” their commander exclaimed as they dragged the shrieking director away.
Zeno remained still as he watched the man being dragged off like a raccoon with rabies. His screaming faded as the doors to the police car shut, and the flashing red-and-blue lights disappeared.
Chaotic conversations began to fill the space, talking about their disdain for Victor and how relieved they were that he was gone.
However, most of the conversations also wondered what was going to happen to the show.
“What’s going to happen now?”
“We’ve already spent too much.”
“The investors… what is their reaction to this?”
They began turning to Devon, who bit his lip in hesitation.
However, after a while, he emerged and stood in the middle of the set, holding a dusty old megaphone.
He cleared his throat, and his voice trembled a little as it rang through the device.
“I honestly don’t know what’s going to happen at this moment,” Devon began. Everyone turned silent as they listened.
“I’ll be honest. Everything right now—it’s uncertain.”
He didn’t find it within him to sugarcoat his words.
“But I do know this,” he continued. “What we made so far will not go to waste. I can’t let it die like this.”
He swallowed and glanced at the faces before him.
“I’m not Victor. I won’t pretend I’m anything like him. However, I have the script. I have the character arcs. I have all the pieces. I can take over, I will take over.”
“And with what I have, I’ll do my best to continue this. I need it to air by the end of the year like promised.”
He let out a shaky breath.
“All I ask is a little time. I just need a little time to clean this up. Just give me that, and I promise we’ll see this through.”
“Together.”
It was silent, and for a second, Devon doubted himself. Did he say something wrong? Was it a bad idea to speak up at this moment?
However, just as he brought his head down, the staff’s voice began to fill the space.
“You got this, Devon!”
“We believe in you!”
“Devon, we’ve always liked you better!”
A small wave of chuckles, along with scattered applause, were added.
Devon felt emotional, and he blinked hard to keep his tears at bay. He hadn’t expected this at all, not after years of being in Victor’s shadow.
He had always been the quiet assistant, the man behind the curtain.
He looked across the field and found Zeno watching amidst the crowd with his usual nonchalant expression.
Devon smiled at him while Zeno merely nodded.
“Thank you,” Devon mouthed.
Zeno clicked his tongue and shook his head, hiding the smile that threatened to appear on his lips.
However, just then, he felt a small impact at his side, and there, he found Jace hugging him while crying onto his shoulders.
“Seriously?” Zeno asked with a sigh. “Move away.”
Jace merely tightened his hug. “Thank you,” he choked out between hiccups. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
“Tch,” Zeno clicked his tongue.
With a small sigh, he looped an arm around Jace, patting his back a little awkwardly.
“Can you even be my rival if you cry like this?” Zeno muttered.
Jace laughed through his tears and wiped his face with the back of his hand, only to hug Zeno tighter.
“I’m serious,” he said, muffled. “You saved me.”
Zeno rolled his eyes, but the smallest ghost of a smile curved his lips.
From afar, Misha stood frozen, watching the scene with a strange ache in her chest.
Zeno had just comforted Jace like a brother.
She swallowed, but even her saliva felt like it got caught in her throat.
Was everything she thought she knew… wrong?