At first, Thame wasn't in the right condition to explain what caused his reaction. He tried a few times, but the mix of strong emotions crammed into such a short amount of time turned his usual soothing voice into an unintelligible series of murmurs and random sounds. Po handed him a glass of water and asked him to sit down, then grabbed Pepper's arm and led him to another side of the room so that Thame could calm down in peace.

"What did Dylan say to cause such a mess? Was he already like this before meeting him?" Pepper asked.

"No. When he came back from Korea, he seemed just as cold as when I interviewed him the first time, although I could sense something odd. Then Dylan arrived. He yelled that Thame destroyed the group's dream to pursue his own career but that he was too much of a coward to accept the challenges of his new role."

"Well... I'm not surprised. We all really cared about the group, no matter what Pemika told us to say to the press. Are you sure you aren't missing anything? I believe that Dylan said what you're telling me, but he's always been like that, and Thame was surely used to it," Pepper thought out loud.

"It was his song..." Thame whispered.

"What song?" Po asked. He didn't know what song Thame was referring to, but the most confusing part was that Pepper looked like he knew exactly what the singer was talking about. Then he remembered that a journalist had also mentioned a song.

"I knew that watching that video could be painful, but to this degree?" Pepper added.

"Yes... I thought that all of you didn't really care about Mars, that the project was actually hindering your dream careers... y-your recorded interviews only confirmed that feeling. Dylan was the one I was most sure about... he... he complained about the way Pemika was handling his songs... so... so I thought that he would have been the happiest among you..." Thame started.

"No... no, we loved Mars. Nothing is perfect, so it's normal to complain about it... but we cared about it, and most importantly, we cared about you," Pepper said, feeling a sense of discomfort as he started to realize what Thame was trying to say.

"I... I know it... but it was already too late. It was clear to me that all of you, especially Dylan, believed that I was going to Korea to follow a selfish dream, and not because I wanted to let you choose your own path. I don't know what to do..."

The more he listened to the young singer, the more Po understood that all of this could have been avoided if Thame had just opened up to him. When he interviewed him the first time, he could easily tell that something was off, but the cold prince preferred to sacrifice himself rather than melt in front of the camera.

Pepper remained silent for a moment. He took Thame's empty glass out of his hands and placed it on the table. Then, he squatted down so that he was at eye level with Thame, wiped away some of his tears, and said:

"We all love you, Thame... some of us may be a little too impulsive, but we love you nonetheless. Now, Po will take you to the restroom, you'll wash your face, and then you'll come back to the table. Tomorrow, we'll get the band back together. I'm sorry that we apparently weren't that open with each other back then, but I'm not going to let that mistake happen again."

Pepper spoke calmly, with a gentle smile that convinced Thame everything was going to be fine.