Page 297 of Light Leech

She shrugged and sighed. “Yeah, there is a catch to our meeting. 3Rochi sounded excited to meet me, but they can put on a show like I did. Rather than meet at a studio or somewhere more convenient, they’ve got a pop-up in Chuyen.”

“Is that in the violet district?” I asked.

She nodded. “Reef has us do pop-ups in Violet and rarely in Indigo Districts, or we would be trapped by fans who will give every lumen to see us. Still, that doesn’t mean it won’t be crowded. There will be fans, but nothing compared to the mob that accompanies a Blue District pop-up.”

“I’ve been to a couple of lower-ranked idol pop-ups in the Blue,” Akna said. “And those were a nightmare. I can’t imagine if you showed up to an event organized just for you.”

“Exactly. When I would show up for my Violet events, we would pull a huge crowd, even more for Indigo events, but there was order. The people who come know that any step out of line will end the event. There will be order, but I can’t promise that when I show up unannounced.”

“You think that much of yourself?” Boyband scoffed.

“No, I just know how people can get when their expectations are changed. We’ll fight for order, but we need to keep our expectations low.”

“And this is why you’re concerned?” I asked.

She nodded. “If they want to paint my departure from Reef poorly, it’ll be easier with a crowd. We’ll be in the public eye, good or bad. “

“And they’re doing that because…” Boyband asked.

“Because if they decide I’m as tainted as their Fin masters say, they can ruin my reputation in an instant. How? I don’t know, but I’m sure Reef has an agenda for them that they are only holding back because we were friends. We might still be.”

“And if they don’t like the new Naoma?” Boyband said.

“Then that’s their problem,” I said. “They can be corporate drones all they want if they think that gives them good personalities.”

Naoma snapped. “That is another point of interest. You’ll see soon enough that even though the three of them each have their own unique personality, they are seen as a single being. They’re a single mind with three heads that are treated as one.”

“So that’s real?” Akna asked.

She nodded.

“You know them?” Boyband asked.

Akna scoffed. “You don’t? You know them, right Petya?”

“Kind of. I know their music but it’s not my favorite so I never dove into their story, but I have heard about them.”

“Anything you’ve heard is probably true,” Naoma said. “I don’t know what else to tell you except be prepared for drama, if they choose to stir it up.”

“And let you take the lead?”

“Oh, that’s a given. You know your world, Pet, but you have no idea where I come from. I’m not talking about my forgotten past or whatever you think you might know from your brief interaction with Anton and anyone else you might have met.”

I nodded.

Boyband prodded me. “Du, are you excited?”

“This is serious,” Naoma scolded.

“I know, but it’s still pulse, especially for the lowlifes like us.”

I scoffed. “Says the heir to a SocStan empire.”

“And where did that get me? This is different. I might have visited the Violet District on occasion, but I never got this close with the elites. Don’t act like you don’t enjoy it. All the attention and adoration has to be nice, doesn’t it?”

“Until you can’t go out in the open without a swarm approaching you. Yeah, I got around with a lightguise but that doesn’t prevent the most modded creeps from seeing through it. I won’t lie that undying adoration is nice, but I didn’t care about it back then. Now that I’m out of Reef’s control, I can see that I was a shac to a lot of my followers. Without Reef to back me up, I can’t protect my public image so if I piss off the wrong person, they’ll use social warfare to smear what I have left into disgrace. I can’t say that you have it better because I don’t remember a life out of this, but I would give almost anything to try that right now. Unfortunately, I don’t have that leisure.”

“You could just ditch us all and chase a life alone if you really want.”