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Bobby’s Boys
To say Bobby was surprised when he first found the Saja Boys in the Huntr/x penthouse would be an understatement. He’d thought the girls didn’t like them. Then, barely two weeks into their hiatus, he’d called round and found Baby Saja on their couch, drinking hot sauce from the bottle and flicking through channels on the TV like he’d always been there.
The girls had seemed a little flustered when Bobby asked them about it.
“We just ran into him one day the other week!” Rumi had flushed.
“Yeah and we just kind of got talking, chatted about rap and stuff y’know!” Zoey had tacked on.
“But where are the other Sajas?”
“Errr… They’ve all kind of…”
“Taking a break, finding themselves.” Baby had butted in. “Don’t know if you noticed, but shit went down post idols. We all kind of… fell apart. Things were messy.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I knew you guys were fighting at the idol awards but I didn’t know…”
“Yeah… we decided we should probably take a break, re-evaluate the situation, and ourselves. We kind of went from zero to two hundred overnight. Not sure we were ready for that.”
Bobby had totally understood. Idol life was insane, high pressured and soul consuming. If you didn’t watch out, it could destroy even the strongest of people; ruin even the strongest of friendships. Just look at his girls… Rumi had practically had a mental breakdown on stage and they’d all fallen out… thankfully, Huntr/x had recovered quickly. It had been his absolute worst fear to see his girls come apart like that. He tried so hard to protect them, to keep them safe and sane.
It was sad to hear the Sajas had succumbed.
He didn’t question it further when Baby was still there weeks later. It seemed he’d formed bonds with the girls and they didn’t seem too bothered by having a new house guest.
He was far more confused when he came by a month and a bit into their hiatus and found all five Saja Boys present.
“Woah! You’re all here now!” They’d all looked comfortable enough… lounging on the couch or playing games on the floor. How long had they been here? Bobby hadn’t been by in a couple weeks… had they turned up during that time? Looked like they were all friends again.
“Errr yeah…” Abby had looked a little perplexed. Baby didn’t even bother looking up from where he was on the floor gaming with the lavender haired one – Mystery right?
“Yeah, they all came back about a week ago. Pretty much same time. We’re all good now. Everyone is doing better.”
“Ok, well that’s great to hear! It’s never good when idol life ruins friendships and bonds!” Bobby had declared, trying to wrap his head around them all living here… or were they just hanging out? Where were the girls?
“We got snacks!” Zoey’s voice echoed through as if summoned by his thoughts. “Oh! Hey Bobby!” she at least seemed entirely normal for Zoey.
“Oh, wow… I see you’ve found the Sajas! Err, surprise!” Rumi said, gesturing at them and wearing one of her weird wide smiles.
“Err yeah… here, let me give you girls a hand with that stuff… in the kitchen…” Bobby had ushered them over, talking in a hushed voice even though the boys didn’t seem interested in listening. “Ok, girls, what is going on? Only a couple of months ago you were raging about them being ‘disgusting demons’ and writing a diss track about them… now they’re camped out on your couch?!”
The girls exchanged a look between them.
“Yeah…” Zoey rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly.
“Turns out, when the pressure of idol life is off… we actually all get on pretty well…” Rumi shrugged.
“But why are they here? Are they just hanging out? Or are they living here like Baby?”
Again, his girls had exchanged a look.
“Don’t they have their own place to go to?”
Another look. What was going on?
“Look, Bobby… after idols… the boys kind of… crashed out. They came apart. They went their separate ways for a bit… But they weren’t in a good place… There was a lot of…” Rumi had chewed her lip uncertainly.
“Mental health crisis.” Mira supplied. “They weren’t coping. But without each other, they were worse off. It wasn’t just burn out… we’re talking full breakdown. Whatever place they had… they lost. I don’t even think they know how to access their own funds and shit. So they’re here for now… until they get back on their feet.”
“Yeah… I mean… we get what it’s like to push yourself too far. They came looking for Baby… they missed him… and well… we realised they were a mess…” Zoey added.
“Right… this is a mad improvement. We talked to them, helped them come back together fully and start recovering properly.” Rumi nodded in agreement to Zoey.
“Yeah. They got taken for a rough ride.” Mira agreed.
Bobby looked across to the boys sitting around. They had always seemed like nice enough people. And looking at them now, you’d never know they’d had such a breakdown… but then, Bobby was no stranger to seeing idols mask their pain.
“Are they planning to go back to idol life?” he asked. The girls shrugged.
“You’d have to ask them that. For now, they’re just adjusting to this new set up… reconnecting.”
Bobby had nodded, deciding he’d keep an eye on the boys – just in case.
It had barely been a week later when he’d been chatting to them all after a gaming session on Mario Kart (in which he whooped butt thank you very much!)
“So, did you guys have a manager before? I’m sure I can track them down, help work out access to all your assets and stuff.” The boys exchanged looks not dissimilar to the girls.
“Err… To be honest… I kind of handled most things…” Jinu said awkwardly, rubbing at his neck in a way that reminded Bobby of Zoey.
“Yeah… we had someone who sort of… endorsed us… but err… he was not really involved…” Abby added on.
“What happened to him?”
Another look passed between the five.
“He fucked off.” Baby stated. “Turns out, he was using a fake identity and stuff.”
“Yeah… we think he’s probably run off with whatever we made.” Mystery joined in.
“Not that we needed him. Jinu did all the important stuff.”
“Wait… Jinu did everything? Social media?”
“With a bit of help from Baby.” Jinu pointed out.
“Music?”
“Jinu.”
“Lyrics.”
“Jinu. And Baby on rap.”
“Choreography?”
“Ah! Abby helped with that!” Jinu declared proudly. “He’s lead choreographer.”
“Merch? Finance? Publicity? Shows? Backstage?” Bobby asked frantically.
“Jinu. Jinu. Jinu. Jinu. Jinu.” The others reeled off. “Well… I guess some of the finance was being manipulated by this other dude… dropped the ball there, Jinu.”
“I’m not surprised!” Bobby exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air. “No one can handle doing all that! Listen, my girls might do their own music, lyrics and choreo… and add in some sick special effects… but I’m their manager! I coordinate the other stuff! They need to be able to focus on the music! And still take care of themselves!”
The boys just blinked at him blankly.
“One person cannot be acting as manager, lead singer, head writer and everything else! It’ll kill you!”
“Yeah… I think it pretty much did.” Jinu muttered quietly.
Bobby grabbed his face.
“You should never have been expected to do all that. No manager worth their salt would permit that. Didn’t this other guy do anything?!”
“Kind of just let us run wild.” Romance shrugged.
“Yeah, Jinu had a vision and he just told him to run with it. He wasn’t exactly supportive.” Abby agreed.
Bobby turned back to look at Jinu who’s face he still had squished between his hands.
“That was unacceptable. No wonder you had a breakdown. I’m amazed you guys are even here and functional.”
He let Jinu go and looked at them all.
“Are you wanting to get back into idol life? Into music?”
They all looked at each other.
“I mean, all I ever wanted was to play music, perform.” Jinu said slowly.
“These abs weren’t meant to be hidden away behind a suit or desk.” Abby grinned. “Besides, I’ve been with you for every crazy ride for ever pretty much…” he clapped a hand to Jinu’s shoulder, “… you’re not getting rid of me yet. Ride or die.”
Jinu returned the smile and gripped Abby’s shoulder in return. “Ride or die.”
Romance leaned onto Abby’s other shoulder.
“I’m with Abby. My face is too pretty to not be seen. And I was not built for manual labour. I’m with you guys.”
“Myst? Baby?” Jinu turned his gaze to the other pair.
“You guys are nothing without me. So, I better join you… you’ve got no hope else.” Baby took a sip of hot sauce (again?) but there was a smile behind his cocky attitude, like he was glad to be back together.
“Myst?”
“It was never what I wanted… being an idol. Being in the public eye… but with you guys? With you guys it was bearable. I know it all came apart there for a while, but I wouldn’t trade what we had for anything.” He put his arms out, one resting on Baby, the other on Romance.
They looked at each other with such genuine care… It touched Bobby right in his feels. His eyes sparkled and grew glassy with tears. The boys had talent. He’d known that off the bat. And they had something alluring about them. The kind of shit fans ate up. And going from cute with soda pop to that whole demonic thing? These boys had range.
“So yeah, I guess that settles it. We will look at going back to it.” Jinu smiled.
“Going back to what?” Rumi asked as the girls had re-entered.
“Music.”
“Oooh yay!” Zoey clapped and sat down by Mystery and Baby. “You guys have too good a voices to not be using them!”
Jinu shifted to make space for Rumi to sit down next to him. Bobby definitely noticed.
“You ok with having some competition again?” he teased her. Rumi just flipped her braid over her shoulder so it smacked him in the face.
“If you boys think you can handle us… We’ve never been stronger.” She grinned.
“Oh, I think we can handle you girls just fine.” Jinu flashed her a flirty grin. (Rujinu?! Bobby’s mind was going haywire)
“Yeah, but this time let’s keep it to friendly rivalry rather than outright hate and fighting, yeah?” Zoey asked, looking at them all.
“We can handle that, a bit of friendly rivalry is fun. And it’ll keep us all on our toes.” Abby said, leaning back and spreading over the couch, his shirt riding to reveal his abs. (Damn… no wonder he didn’t want those hidden)
Mira’s cheeks turned pink, but she just rolled her eyes.
“Guess you guys will need an actual manager this time though. Don’t want to burn out trying to work crazy magic.” She pointed out.
“I bet Bobby can recommend some!” Zoey squealed. “Bobby is the greatest manager in the world, and he has high standards! He’ll choose someone who will do you guys right!”
“You think you could help us out with that, Bobby? It really would mean the world to us.” Jinu said, all the Sajas looking at him earnestly.
“We’d be forever in your debt.” Romance agreed.
“Oh, don’t be silly… I don’t need you in my debt! I just need you guys to thrive! And take care of yourselves!” Bobby laughed. These boys had clearly had it rough – no one had prepared them, and this other guy had taken them for a ride! Practically a scam artist! They needed the best! Someone who wouldn’t manipulate them, who would genuinely care about their well being, not just their stats on the charts. Someone who could give them creative freedom without letting them run themselves into the ground.
He got the impression the boys were much like his girls. Jinu definitely sounded like Rumi – try and do everything, never stop until they were too burned out to function and then keep going. Baby seemed to have an attitude to rival Mira’s… and the other three could hardly be more chaotic than Zoey right?
Wait… he knew exactly who they needed!
“I’ll be your manager!” Bobby exclaimed.
All eight of them exchanged looks.
“Bobby, are you sure?” Jinu asked carefully.
“Yeah, managing Huntr/x is pretty full on. Managing the Saja Boys too?” Mira raised an eyebrow at him.
“It’ll be a great new challenge! They’ve had one single! Two singles? But the second never got properly released, did it? Ok, we can use that as a starting board…”
“Bobby, if they take off like they did before, you’ll be managing two chart toppers.” Zoey pointed out. “That’s a lot of extra stress and pressure.”
“I can handle it! Besides, sounds like these boys need a pretty special kind of manager!”
All eight exchanged a look again.
“Well, he’s not wrong about that.” Rumi agreed.
“Yeah, we are pretty ‘special’…” Abby grinned.
“Plus, it’ll show the world that any rivalry is just friendly! No animosity or anything! And it’ll make joint events, signings even collabs so much easier!”
“Slow down there Bobby…” Mira laughed. “We never said we were going to collab with them.”
“It makes total sense! The biggest girl band in the world with the biggest boy band!”
“Let’s not inflate their egos… they aren’t the biggest yet.” Mira narrowed her gaze as Romance blew her a kiss and Abby flexed his bicep at her.
“Only a matter of time, princess.”
“Go fuck yourselves.” She bit back.
“Gladly… want to join?” Abby winked.
Oh boy. Bobby was going to have his hands full with this lot. But as he sat there, watching them laugh and rib each other… some more aggressively than others… he couldn’t help but think this was right. That he’d just made the best decision since taking on Huntr/x. They were his boys and girls now. And he’d stand by them through anything.