Secret Patterns

51. Questions Without Answers

The Room

The rehearsal hall was already lit when Huntr/x arrived. Too lit—fluorescents buzzing sharp, cameras packed in their bags but still present like ghosts. The boys had been dismissed early, which left only the girls, their manager Bobby, and two members of the larger management team leaning against the mirrored wall with clipboards in hand.

Bobby stood at the center, arms folded, eyes steady. Not angry, not storming—something worse. His calm was deliberate, the kind of quiet that carried more weight than shouting ever could.

"Sit," he said, gesturing to the folding chairs set in a row.

Zoey dropped into hers like a defendant waiting for sentencing. Rumi folded her blanket across her lap, already bracing herself. Mira sat stiff-backed, notebook ready in case she needed to weaponize facts. Rin...hesitated before sitting, jacket zipped up to her throat.

Bobby's gaze lingered on her before sweeping the group. "So. I woke up to quite a surprise this morning."

The Curiosity

He paced slowly, hands loose now, tone almost conversational. "Girls, do you know how fast a photo can travel once it's out? Any guesses?"

Zoey raised her hand halfway. "Uh...seconds?"

"Seconds, yes. But that's only the first ripple." He leaned forward slightly, voice smooth. "By the time I had my first coffee, Rin's café picture had already been translated into six languages and captioned with at least four different theories. Do you know what those theories are?"

The girls exchanged glances. None of them answered.

Bobby smiled faintly, though it didn't reach his eyes. "Romance. Abby. A secret collaboration. A fight. A date. All from one slice of cake and a badly angled window shot." His gaze landed back on Rin. "Amazing, isn't it? How the world fills silence with stories."

Rin sat rigid, jaw tight.

The Questions

Bobby clasped his hands. "So here's what I want to know. Why were you there? Why didn't you tell me? Why did no one think to cover for each other before the photo spread? Why, after years of training, are we still stumbling into headlines we don't control?"

The questions fired one after the other, not shouted, but steady, scalpel-sharp.

Zoey squirmed under the weight. "We didn't know anyone would see—"

"Of course people will see," Bobby cut in gently. "This city is a camera. Always has been. So why gamble?"

Rumi whispered, "She needed quiet..."

Bobby tilted his head. "And does quiet require company?"

Rin's stomach lurched, heat creeping under her skin. She forced herself to meet his eyes. "I didn't ask him to come."

Bobby nodded slowly, thoughtful. "But he came anyway. And you let him sit."

Her silence was answer enough.

The Turn

Bobby walked the length of the mirror, his reflection pacing alongside. "I'm not here to scold you like children. You're not children. You're professionals. Which is why I'm curious. What is it about this boy—about Abby—that made you decide he could sit where no one else could?"

The question fell heavy, not just on Rin but on the others too. Zoey leaned forward, waiting. Rumi bit her lip. Mira's pen hovered above the page like she was already dissecting the implications.

Rin's throat tightened. "It's not what you think."

"Then help me think correctly," Bobby said calmly. "Because if I don't understand it, management will invent an answer. And trust me, their answer won't be kind."

Rin's hands curled into fists in her lap. She could feel her sisters' eyes on her, waiting, wondering if she would finally open the door she'd been guarding so fiercely.

But all she said was: "It was just cake."

Bobby studied her a moment longer, then exhaled, as though conceding the stalemate. "If that's the story, then that's the story. But from here on, you tell me where you are. You tell me who you're with. Because I can't protect what I don't know."

His gaze swept over all of them. "Understood?"

The girls nodded in uneven unison.

"Good," Bobby said, voice still calm. "Rehearsal starts in ten. Try not to give the cameras anything else to invent."

He left them with that, clipboard staff trailing behind him.

Aftermath

The girls sat frozen for a long moment after the door shut. The silence was thick enough to feel.

Zoey broke first, whispering, "He's like...a terrifying school teacher."

Rumi exhaled shakily. "At least he wasn't yelling."

Mira's eyes were still fixed on Rin. "No. He didn't need to."

Rin shifted in her chair, jacket hot against her skin. She hated how her chest still felt tight, how the echo of Bobby's question lingered like a hook: Why him?

She didn't have an answer she could give. Not to them. Not even to herself.