Pulse

Jace scrolled his phone, violently swiping past the barrage of replies populating the ninth thread he’sd seen on the incident since he’d gotten upstairs. He’s barely reading each one, simply skimming enough words to get the gist before his eyes shift to the next comment.

His hands were shaking, and he was twirling a lock of hair between his fingers frantically.

Jace had never had a situation like this happen before, and he didn’t know what the next steps were. He was halfway through a particularly long and emotionally-loaded response on the thread he was reading when his manager sent a message to their group chat.

Wes
To you & 4 others
I’m on my way. Be there soon

Jace locked his phone and buried his head in his hands. His imagination burst to life, and the black behind his eyelids shuffled through various vivid scenarios.

What if he wasn’t allowed unsupervised downtime anymore?

His agency wasn’t normally strict with things like that — everyone could go wherever they liked and do whatever they pleased within reason (and the boundaries of their contracts). Still, Jace had just initiated a situation that seemed to be bubbling into a major scandal. Surely they’d have justification for taking extra precautions against potential risks.

A restriction like that could even spill over to the rest of the group under the guise of keeping things “fair.” Jace groaned. He’d never be able to live with himself if he were the reason that the boys had to be kept under close watch.

On the other hand, what if he got suspended from group activities?

Jace had heard rumors about that happening to idols from other companies; their management would release a public statement about them needing a mental health break, or having to sit out for a while due to an injury. In reality, it was just a ruse to cover up that the idol was being punished for stepping out of line.

Jace supposed that a suspension wasn’t the worst thing that could happen to him; there were no long-term consequences, and it likely wouldn’t affect the others’ activities or personal lives very much.

That line of thinking had marginally slowed Jace’s racing heart, but it was short-lived. Jace gasped.

What if he got kicked out of the group?

Jace started to see circles in the darkness behind his eyelids. His next thoughts came in fragments, reflecting memories of his time in PRYZMIC before shattering the illusions to reveal the emptiness that would be left if he got kicked out of the group.

Jace bit his lip, working a piece of dried flesh between his teeth. He hadn’t used any Chapstick since he was in his car. Since earlier this evening… since he’d—

Jace shook his head, attempting to forcefully dispel his antagonistic thoughts.

It didn’t work, but he was able to sneak one semi-logical line of thinking in.

His getting kicked to the curb… ultimately, that one was unlikely. Especially since the group was so new. They were a big investment from their company, and so far, it seemed to have been paying off. They wouldn’t risk the bad press and negative reception of the group by canning a member when they were still so fresh. Surely dealing with the fallout of whatever he’d just done to all of their careers was a much more appealing option than exiling him… right?

Jace let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. He parted his fingers and peeked through the gaps, the light grounding him as he stared at the gray wood of his bedroom floor.

At this point, there was nothing Jace could do. He just had to wait for their manager, Wes, to arrive and let him know what his consequences were going to be. Needless to say, Jace was shaking in nervous anticipation. His pessimistic daydreams did nothing to soothe his nerves.

Jace’s door creaked; it was probably the wind. There was a non-zero chance that he’d forgotten to fully close the door in his mad dash to his room earlier that evening.

Jace ignored it. Then came the sound of shuffling.

In a house with 5 young guys, there were all kinds of random noises, so Jace paid them no mind either. It wasn’t until he heard an irritatingly pitch-perfect 4-part harmony coming from his doorway that it dawned on him what was happening.

“Ooooh, you’re in troubleeeee.”

Jace looked up, hands falling to his lap, and turned towards the group. Atlas was on Landon’s back, face split with a massive grin. The latter smiled at him gently, completely unfazed by the menace climbing him like a tree. Ash stood beside them, weight shifted onto one leg, and his hands were in the pockets of his black hoodie. He was chewing gum, but the tiny smirk on his face was still noticeable. Grant is the member whom Jace expected to take the least amount of pleasure in his misery. He stood leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed over his chest. He was trying, failing, to keep a smile from forming on his face.

Jace grabbed the thing nearest to him on his bed — the beanie he tore off the minute he sat down — and threw it at the group. “Get out of my room.”

“Lighten up, man,” Ash responds. He’d strayed away from the other three and started fiddling with objects on Jace’s bookshelf.

“Honestly, it’s about time you do something wrong. You were making the rest of us look like problem kids.” Landon instinctively reaches out to catch Atlas’ arm, where he was about to elbow him in the head. “Remember when Ash flooded the bathroom cause he fell asleep in the tub?”

“Of course, we remember, it was last week.” Atlas snickers.

“How did I become collateral damage?”

Atlas and Ash start bickering from across the room. Altas, now almost situated on Landon’s shoulders, launched himself from the taller man’s back and landed on all fours on Jace’s bed.

“Geez!”

“Are you insane!?”

“Atlas.”

Atlas ignored the chastising and stood on Jace’s bed to continue his back-and-forth with Ash, clearly taking advantage of the frazzled state of their groupmate to take the lead in whatever disagreement they were having. In the midst of the chaos, Jace’s phone had sprung up from the bed and landed face up on the floor beside him, still open to the fan thread he was reading earlier.

Grant rolled his eyes and pushed off the doorframe. “We were just teasing, Jace.” He walked in front of Jace and knelt so that even from Jace’s position seated on the edge of his bed, they were at eye level with one another. “How are you feeling?” Grant took Jace’s phone and clicked the power button to shut the screen off before he pocketed it in the back of his jeans.

Jace flops backwards on his bed and throws a hand over his face.

“Like the biggest failure in the world."

It sounded like an exaggeration, but it wasn’t. Jace was so disappointed in himself for making such a simple slip-up — he went on casual dates all the time! He knew not to let himself get caught out with a girl without anything covering his face or shielding his identity.

“It’s not the end of the world, Sainty-Jacey,” Atlas leaned over him, blocking out the light and his view of the others. The shower-damp pink tips at the end of his orange-brown hair tickled Jace’s chin. “Idols get into scandals all the time.”

Jace gritted his teeth. Scandals. That was what this was now, wasn’t it? Two years ago, if you'd bet him that he would be the first one to get PRYZMIC into a scandal, Jace would have laughed and collected his prize money without waiting to see the results.

“That’s true,” Grant added from where he sat on the floor. “But we’re only in our second year, scandals this early can have a heavier impact than ones later in a group's lifespan.”

Jace groaned and rolled over onto his stomach, face buried in his comforter. The other guys were ridiculous to compare anything they’d done to what Jace was dealing with; Ash flooding their shared bathroom or Landon blowing up their toaster didn’t hold a candle to the mess Jace had gotten himself into.

The boys started chattering among themselves about things Jace was too exhausted to pay attention to. He heard a few other group names and names of idols he recognized get thrown around, likely to compare situations. Jace decided he would rather not take himself down that road again and tuned out the conversation.

He felt his body getting heavier, the fatigue from his rollercoaster of a day, and the emotional turmoil of the last hour finally taking a toll on him.

If Jace went to sleep, would he wake up in the morning and discover that the last 24 hours had been one long, bad dream? Because seriously, Jace being a PR liability? In what universe would that ever happen?

Jace was startled out of his daze by a set of three strong knocks to his door. He turned his head in the direction of the noise and found the others also facing the source.

Wes had arrived, the expression on his face utterly indiscernible. Jace gulped.

Grant stood up and clapped twice. “Alright, boys. Out. Let’s leave Jace and Wes to talk in peace.”