Page 40 of Damian & Jun: Episodes 1-4
“You do look like your LinkedIn profile.” She sauntered up to him, thumbs hooked into belt loops, and looked him up and down. “Damn. Are you single?”
“Gay.”
“Damn it again. Why are all the good-looking ones taken or gay?”
“Maybe you’re looking in the wrong places.”
“Naw, just not looking. But I can look.” She raised her eyebrows suggestively.
Damian shook his head, and she grinned. They fell into step with each other, keeping it moving along the water. In a somewhat quieter area, away from fishing grandfathers and nosy kids, Gigi paused. “Do you know where Jun is?”
“Yes.”
“Why did he disappear?”
“Bak’s trying to force him into sleeping with someone.” There was no point in beating around the bushes. Gigi didn’t have that vibe, and her future was probably on the line in some form or fashion either way if 5N crashed.
She digested that for a moment, not questioning, just pushing her fingers through more belt loops and scuffing at a leaf on the ground.
She squinted up at Damian after a moment. “What are you to him?”
“He hasn’t put a label on us. I consider him my person.”
“So, what do you need me for?”
“Bak is holding Jun’s passport. Without it, I can’t get him out of the country. And if Jun stays…”
“Bak’s real chummy with the chief of police. They’re like old schoolmates or something. Yeah, I see the problem.”
Looking up as if the sky had answers, she huffed and shoved her hands deep into her pockets. “There’re only two places they’d hold it unless Bak is keeping it with his personal papers. I’m not into all the goings-on. I’m just a contractor. There’s this girl. Her English name is Julie. I don’t know her Korean one. If she knew she could get a job elsewhere, she’d probably be willing to help us. Let me invite her to lunch.” Gigi whipped out her phone and shot off a text. “We will have to lie to her.”
“That’s fine.”
“Then let’s get our story straight. How much time do we have?”
“I don’t know. Bak gave Jun until the first of the year.”
“And today is the twenty-sixth though it’s almost over. But now that he’s missing…” Gigi trailed off, staring off into the distance. “Yeah, if it wasn’t for the kids, I’d have kicked this gig a long time ago. Worth it.”
“BBB3 bad place to work?”
Gigi snorted. “God-awful. I get by by playing the dumb American card. And they think I’m kinda weird. I mean, I am, but…I can cosplay human when I want to.”
Damian chuckled like he was supposed to.
She smiled back. “It’s a good thing that I’m worth what they pay me; otherwise, they’d have fired my ass. But the fans love the shit I put out, and my idols always give me what I want, you know, so…the boss boys put up with me when I don’t put up with them.”
Her phone twittered, and she thumbed the screen. “Okay, Julie is down to hang. I told her to meet me at this café near her place. You up for a bit of a walk?”
A bit of a walk was more like fifteen minutes. Richard texted he was at the hotel. Now they just needed Jun to make it there as well.
Julie was a slim, shy-looking woman with waist-length hair and the kind of face that would probably look forever young with puffy baby cheeks and wide eyes made even larger by lash extensions and makeup. Dressed in a skater skirt and light sweater, she was clutching her purse on her lap, and her hair was up in a ponytail. Her coat hung over the back of her chair.
“Gigi.” She jumped to attention as soon as they stepped through the door of the café.
Gigi waved hello and greeted Julie with a hug. “This is my friend Damian.”
Confusion crossed over Julie’s eyes. Gigi leaned in and whispered, “He has a problem, well, he’s solving a problem, and I think we can help him. Let me go order something. Oh, he speaks Korean.”
