Chapter 39: CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT

Po stood frozen, staring in disbelief at the scene in front of him. Nano and Pepper stepped forward, taking the sandwiches from his hands and nudging him to sit down with them.

“How did you all end up here?”

“It’s a bit of a cliché,” Dylan replied, throwing a glance at Jun, but directed his words to Pepper.

“You tell him.”

“Where do I even start? Should I begin with how we figured out we needed to be here?” Pepper glanced at Jun again. “Or should I explain how we found out about everything first?”

“Fine, I’ll talk,” Jun finally said, though Nano couldn’t resist teasing him.

“If you don’t want to, I can tell the story—with a little extra flair to make it tastier.”

Just hearing their banter made Po feel good. The atmosphere of Mars was back, and it reminded him of what he had missed so much.

“Don’t even think about it,” Jun warned Nano before turning to Po. “There was a time when I had to clear the air with Thame—about you, actually. During that time, I kept hearing about your routines, so I learned that you liked coming here. When I heard you were planning to bring the band back together, this was the only place I could think of to find you.”

“Because it’s not like you could go to the dorm anymore, right?” Pepper guessed.

“Yeah,” Po nodded.

“And they probably wiped all your contacts, didn’t they?” Dylan added.

“Right.”

“No problem.” Nano grinned. “If they took them, we’ll just give them back.

Hand me your phone.” He grabbed Po’s phone and started fiddling with it.

“But how did you even find out?” Po asked, frowning.

“Well, whoever you told must’ve told us,” Jun said with a grin. Po still looked confused.

“You mean… Ming and Tae?”

No one answered, but their silence confirmed his guess.

“So, what’s your plan to reunite us?” Pepper asked. “What’s the big idea?”

“Well, I was thinking that if I could talk to Thame, I’d ask him to get a copy of his contract so we could figure out what conditions it has and see if there are any loopholes we could use.”

“That would take too long,” Jun immediately objected.

“Agreed,” Dylan chimed in. “By the time you finish reading it and figuring out the conditions, we’d run out of time to do anything.”

“Then what if we arrange some kind of event before the concert, so you guys can meet and talk?” Po suggested.

“There’s no way the company would let us meet Thame before the concert,” Pepper said knowingly.

“Right now, your contacts with Thame are completely erased,” Nano added, reporting on what had been happening with the band.

“If we’re going to do something, we need to do it without them knowing,” Jun said, an idea sparking. “And we’ll use the concert itself to pull it off.”

“But if you do something like that during the concert, it’ll cause damage to Wanner, and you guys could get in trouble—maybe even sued,” Po warned.

“Well, maybe if I had to take on Thame’s debt for once, I’d stop feeling so guilty,” Dylan said, half-joking and half-bitter.

“Come on, don’t even joke about that,” Po scolded gently.

“Relax, I was just kidding,” Pepper reassured him. “But honestly, whatever we do has to work. There’s no room for failure.”

“And let’s face it, things can’t get any worse than they already are,” Jun pointed out.

“If we’re doing this during the concert, we need the right timing and a solid plan.”

“So, Mr. Director, don’t you have any ideas?” Jun teased.

“I might,” Po admitted, “but it would require backstage help. And since I’m no longer a Wanner employee, it’ll be hard to manage anything behind the scenes.”

“Hard? No way,” Dylan said, raising an eyebrow. “I’d say you’ve got more freedom now.”

Po looked confused.

“You’re not a Wanner employee anymore,” Nano clarified. “You can break all the rules now.” He handed Po an All Area backstage pass for the concert.

“Phi Mick had you fired by Pemika to make it easier for you to act,” Pepper revealed.

“What?” Po exclaimed.

“It wasn’t Ming or Tae who helped us—it was Phi Mick all along,” Jun said with a sly smile.

“Huh?”

“Even though he acts like he’s completely loyal to Pemika and doesn’t care about us, the truth is he’s always had our backs,” Jun explained.

“He probably figured everything out a long time ago, even when he first started noticing you. But he let you do what you needed to do as long as it didn’t cause him trouble.”

Po thought back to the moment he had pleaded with Mick in the café. Jun continued:

“That day, he called me immediately and asked for advice. And we were the ones who told him it’d be easier to get you out of Wanner.”

“So this means…” Po started piecing it all together. “We’re going into this concert with Mick coordinating everything, and I’m free to do whatever needs to be done.”

“Exactly,” Pepper confirmed.

“But the problem is,” Nano pointed out, tapping the table, “we can’t tell Thame. He’s rehearsing, working, and receiving briefings separately from us.”

“And all of that…” Dylan added, emphasizing the issue, “is directly controlled by Pemika.” He looked around the table. “She’s practically glued to him.”

“Maybe we need to come up with a plan for Mick to separate Thame from her,” Pepper suggested.

“How?” Nano asked, but Jun cut in before anyone could answer.

“Actually… maybe Thame doesn’t even need to know.”

“What? Are you serious?” Dylan protested. “That’ll just make it harder.”

“Will it?” Jun looked around at everyone, then laid out his reasoning.

“Thame managed to do the impossible on his own—he brought the four of us together. Now, are you saying the four of us can’t bring him back? Are we really going to let him outdo us?”

Jun smiled as he placed the concert’s breakdown schedule on the table. The group huddled around it, their determination evident. It was clear none of them would let Thame stand alone anymore.

“The concert is split into four sections,” Jun began. “The opening, the fun segment, the emotional segment, and the finale to celebrate success and farewell.”

“But from what Mick told us, we won’t be allowed to see Thame at any point,” Pepper added.

“Even the dressing rooms and backstage areas will be separated,” Nano confirmed.

“The only place we’ll see him,” Dylan pointed to the stage layout, “is during the performance. And all we can do there is follow the script.”

“So,” Jun concluded, “the only way to communicate with Thame is to change the breakdown.”

Po spread the documents out in front of him. “The best place for us to insert something is here,” he pointed to the transition between the fun and emotional segments. “Right after Thame’s solo performance, because that’s when the documentary is set to play.”

“You’re going to use the documentary?” Nano asked.

“Yeah. It’s the easiest thing for us to tweak. Plus, I know exactly what’s in it —I made it.”

“If we’re using the documentary, we’ll need to swap it out with a new version,” Dylan suggested.

“Can Mick help us with that?” Pepper asked. “Like, before the concert starts, he could switch the file.”

“But even if we change the file, the company will notice and probably stop us midway through the concert,” Jun pointed out.

Everyone nodded in agreement, the room falling silent as they thought.

Then Dylan spoke up:

“Then what if we take control of the stage after that?”

He sketched out his idea, explaining it to the group. Finally, he looked at Po and said, “This all depends on whether you can pull it off, Po.”

Po swallowed hard. The weight of the plan rested on him. He looked at the four members of Mars, their eyes filled with hope and determination, and said:

“I’ll make it happen. No matter what, I’ll bring Thame back to you.”

TO BE CONTINUED.