"So, you casually called us to a cafe to tell us you're going to stalk your favourite idol? For a week?" Brooke Morales leaned on the table towards him, causing Elliot to shoot her a glare.

"While I'm just as surprised as you are, I'd immensely appreciate you not getting hair in my tacos." Elliot said, glaring at her curly red strands that now had mayonnaise in them.

Milo had finally left his hermit life behind and met up with his two childhood friends at a nearby cafe to explain his dilemma and hopefully get some advice. 

"I'm not stalking him, Brooks. Also, please keep your voice down, this is supposed to be confidential. That waiter is already looking ready to kick us out." Milo pleaded, stealing a taco from Eliliot's plate who immediately slapped his hand away.

"Focus." He ordered. "Look, as far I know, Metronome Entertainment has been hiring a lot of security recently."

Elliot worked for a security agency, so Milo completely trusted the source of the information he was hearing. "Security? Like bodyguards and all? Makes sense. Right now, the hate for Noel is blowing up so I'm sure they've been getting a concerning amount of death threats. They're probably taking precautions."

Elliot frowned, pushing his taco plate aside which showed that he was getting serious. "You know what that means, right? If your identity got leaked while you're with him practically the whole day, that could pose to be a danger to you too. You will have to be cautious too. I personally think you accepting this offer is way more beneficial to them than it is to you." 

Brooke set her phone down, the game she was playing set on autoplay as she dedicated all her attention to sneaking off a few more tacos into her mouth without Elliot's knowledge. "Actually, I think it has its own advantages. For one, no one knows for sure what's going on with this drama. Some are siding with Soha, and others are pretty set on defending Noel. If Milo does manage to uncover what actually happened in that one week...his career would take off massively."

Brooke had a way of showing her genius at the most unexpected times. Distinctive background beeps and pops sounded from her phone, indicating that her game had gotten over. She immediately picked her phone and started typing away.

Usually, Milo hated it when people were on their phones while speaking to him, he found it rude. He usually did make an exception for Brooke though, since her literal occupation was being a professional gamer and streamer. Whenever they made plans to meet up, she'd push everything in her schedule back and make time for them, so it was only fair that Milo made an exception. 

Even Elliot had come straight from work upon hearing Milo mention that he needed urgent advice, which was obvious judging from his black polo neck and jeans. They had probably heard about the Noel scandal and guessed it had something to do with that.

"I thought about it for long." Milo admitted. "They basically said I'm the biggest fan page, and if I turn my back on him, his image is screwed. They're obviously trying to keep me from nuking Markouholics. They said I should 'judge for myself.' I know it could be damage control, some PR stunt but-"

"But your brain is saying maybe you can fix him?" Brooke interrupted, not looking up from her phone. That girl was a sight, with red coils framing her face, tangled in her wired earphones that she swore were better than the wireless ones cause "earphones shouldn't be so high maintenance"

"What?" Milo asked in confusion. "No! I just want to be sure of my decision. I would probably die of guilt if I later found out that all of this was just a smear campaign and Noel is in fact, innocent. On the other hand, even if I continue as it is, I'll keep thinking of what-ifs. I don't want to live with myself when I'm like that, thank you very much."

Elliot nodded thoughtfully. "You do get pessimistic with your imagination. So, you're going to accept? Be sure to add a clause for security in their document or contract or whatever they get you to sign."

"Sure will. I'll add a ton of my own clauses." 

Elliot gave a thumbs up. "Glad to see you back on your feet. And Brooks. Stop eating my damn tacos." 

The rest of the time at the cafe passed with a healthy dose of bickering and gossip. Apparently, Brooke had accidentally said something to a colleague which had been taken out of context. She was enjoying all the fire though, since it was all just unplanned rage bait.

That evening Milo sent Manager Kim a message agreeing to the proposal and looking forward to adding some requests to the company's generous asks.

He stated that he would not give confirmation on the status of his account and if he would recover it, but he would give it a fair try and see Noel's side as well.

Which brought him to the next morning, a mound of clothes covering every inch of his bed and floor, not an inch of the floor visible. Milo hated himself for procrastinating deciding on the topics he would discuss in the meeting with Metronome Entertainment as well as his packing. He now hopped about, holding different pairs of clothing to his body while muttering possible points of contentions under his breath.

An hour later he was ready in simple casual clothing and fifteen minutes late. He told himself that it was fine, they were the ones who needed him and would be willing to wait but then mentally berated himself when he realised how entitled he sounded. 

Finally giving up and mentally exhausted, he got into an uber, which drove off to Metronome Entertainment headquarters. 

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟 𓆝 𓆟 𓆞 𓆝 𓆟𓆝