Page 2 of Damian & Jun: Episodes 1-4
Damian
Damian closed his message app, yet another text to Jun unsent. It was still early in Seoul with the fourteen-hour time difference. He’d wait a little longer.
Collin rolled over on the couch and repositioned his head on Damian’s thigh. Damian draped one arm over Collin’s back and tousled the other man’s hair. Alice, Collin’s sister, was texting on her phone on another couch with Dana stretched out on the floor next to her like a proper nine-year-old, asleep on Maribel, her German Shepherd. The fire in the great fireplace crackled. Maribel’s tail twitched. The great room they were all lounging in was so large that there was a soft echo off the massive glass windows on either end.
It was a beautiful centerpiece of a beautiful estate, a space where one could watch both the sunrise and the sunset. Done up in a mountain lodge style, the floors were polished wood with wool rugs strewn about and massive log beams exposed two floors overhead in the vaulted ceilings. There were not one but two grand synthetic Christmas trees in the space. They were still dwarfed by the soaring woods outside where Damian had been running earlier.
Collin tilted his face upward toward Damian. “You’re brooding. It’s okay. We’re celebrating, Solstice, remember? Together.”
Damian huffed. It was Christmas Eve. And even if traditionally Collin and Alice didn’t celebrate Christmas, they observed the Winter Solstice. Richard and Émeric made a point of having a holiday in whatever traditions were present. With work schedules, Christmas was the time everyone had off, so that’s when everything was observed. He wanted to be happy. There was so much to be happy for. Everyone, despite the odds, was alive and, as Collin said, together.
Except for him and Jun.
Damian ruffled his kink brother’s hair again. Not that any amount of petting would stop the younger man from being concerned. Collin had a wonderfully annoying need to take care of everyone. And the ability to sense the unsaid.
Damian let his hand still, his fingers still threaded through Collin’s hair. “It’s my person, the one I told you about.”
Collin regarded Damian with those patient, calm eyes that were so very—something. “They’re still not answering?” he asked.
Damian let his head fall back on the couch. “It’s probably nothing.”
Collin sat up, sitting sideways on the couch to face Damian. He gripped Damian’s thigh to steady himself. “But you think it’s something.”
On the other couch, Alice raised her head from her phone. Damian met her eyes for a second. She studied him, sharp and quick, then looked back down and went on typing. Damn that girl. She was as perceptive as her brother and twice as likely to start shit.
Damian grimaced. How much could he share? It wasn’t like Collin or Alice would repeat anything he said. They all already lived under media scrutiny because of their connections to Linda and Richard. The only thing Collin couldn’t keep secret was how much he loved the people he’d chosen as his. Alice, though, could lie with a straight face.
Collin knocked his head gently against Damian’s chest, bringing him back. “You do think it’s something.”
Damian rubbed his forehead with the knuckle of his thumb and waved his hand between them. “My person has been asking questions for the last six months. Legal questions. I think they’re in some sort of predatory contract. Their communications are monitored. Usually, they manage to keep a secret phone, but lately…”
Collin frowned. “Are they in the military?”
“No.”
Concern and compassion seeped into Collin’s eyes. “Can they show you the contract?”
Damian shook his head. “I’ve asked.”
On the floor in front of the fireplace, Maribel gave a little woof in her sleep, a doggy dream. Dana, stretched out half on top of her, stirred and settled against her canine friend, falling back down into her nap. She was cute. Kid cute. It was weird having a kid around. The Residency had been without kids, even kids of friends or family, for years.
Collin also watched Dana and Maribel. Only when it was obvious both had settled did Collin turn back to Damian. He was frowning again. “Your person is in South Korea, right?”
Damian nodded.
“Can you go check on them? Or would that make it worse?”
Damian picked up his phone again. “I mean, they don’t even read my messages. They won’t know I’m coming. And if they don’t know I’m coming, then they can’t get away to see me.”
Collin shrugged. “Do you have an idea of where they are? You’re a lawyer. You could make up a reason?”
Damian paused, his head tilted. Collin had a point. He woke up his screen and went back to his unsent message. Maybe he could do something like that, make up an excuse to insist on seeing Jun in person. BBB3, the talent agency Jun worked for, had a physical office. He edited his text and sent it. If that didn’t work, then he could come up with some legal reason to visit Jun’s manager’s office and sniff around. He’d have to be careful not to lose his license, but he could toe that line.
Just to get rid of one last task, he flipped over to his regular messaging app for US communications and arranged e-delivery of Christmas money to his sister Dalia for her and her five kids via text. he attached and sent it. Now he could enjoy Christmas/Winter Solstice in peace.
To the room he said, “Do you know when we’re allowed in the kitchen again?”
Alice wrinkled up her nose. “It’s not that we’re not allowed in. It’s just that Richard, Émeric, Hypatia, and Matthew are kinda having a reunion. You guys are probably allowed in.”
