Page 46 of Damian & Jun: Episodes 5-8
Why was he supposed to greet guests? He was a guest himself. But it would be rude to point that out, so he followed Collin to the front door of The Residency.
As soon as the door was open, he had an armful of his maknae. Su-jin jumped, wrapping his arms around Jun’s waist and squeezing his hips. “Big brother, we missed you!”
Yohei and Collin both dove forward, Yohei grabbing Su-jin and Collin bracing Jun from behind.
“Su-jin! His stomach!” Yohei scolded, holding his younger band member up by his armpits.
Su-jin’s legs cycled in midair, and then he blinked and went limp in Yohei’s grasp.
“Oh! I forgot! JunJun, are you okay? I’m sorry!”
Yohei set Su-jin on his feet, ruffling his hand in Su-jin’s floppy hair.
Jun pressed a hand to his belly. “I’m fine. You squeezed my hips, not my organs.” He reached out and pulled Su-jin into a hug, holding out his other arm to snag Jaewoong by his oversized sweater.
Jaewoong leaned in, swinging an arm over Jun’s back. “Hyung, you’re alive.”
Jun squeezed Jaewoong back as best he could and gave Geun and Yohei a grateful look over Jaewoong’s shoulder. “You came. I didn’t know you were coming. I thought I’d see you in a day or two.”
Geun’s eyes narrowed almost to slits with a smirk. He touched two fingers to his lips and mimed sending Jun a kiss, then gave him the middle the finger.
Jun laughed and shook his head. Leave it to Geun to play it off.
Geun stepped to the side, lifting his arm. Mi Hi peeked out from behind him where she had obviously been hiding. “Surprise!”
“Mi Hi!” Jun tried to take a step forward, but Su-jin and Jaewoong were still attached to him.
She giggled. She looked good, better than she had in Seoul. It looked like she’d had several full nights of sleep. How she somehow looked better rested while wrangling their social media blowup spoke to how badly things must have been before.
“Please take your shoes off and come in. I’ll help with your coats.” Collin stepped in as a gracious host. Jun helped, getting Su-jin’s coat off him and shuffling him deeper into the front room so the rest of the crowd could get inside and also divest themselves of their coats.
Collin invited everyone down the hall to the lounge. Su-jin and Geun went to the windows immediately to look out over the city and the lake. Which was so not a lake. Jun said as much to Jaewoong, who chuckled and shoved his hands into his pockets. Jaewoong had a thing about heights; he wasn’t going to be spending a lot of time near the windows.
“Will you be all right?” Jun asked, pointing at him.
“As long as I don’t have to be right at the edge and can pretend it’s just a pretty landscape. The windows don’t open, right?”
“No windows open and no porches. There’s only a small section of the glass that can be cracked open for airflow in the back against the wall. We never open it for fear Artemis will jump out,” Collin said. He offered Jaewoong a cup of sparkling cider.
“Who’s Artemis?”
“Our cat,” Collin grinned, then paled. “Who I forgot to let out. I’ll be right back.” Collin practically fled.
“That’s Damian’s brother?” Jaewoong asked, watching Collin leave.
“It’s complicated.”
Damian strolled over. “Collin is my mentor’s partner. He’s my chosen family.”
Jaewoong nodded, as if he understood any of that, then grinned. “So, I heard someone here speaks French. Who is it?”
Jun pointed out Émeric. Jaewoong practically vibrated. “Introductions, please.”
There were a lot of introductions to make, but fortunately, Jun didn’t need to make them all by himself. His bandmates already knew Richard and Damian. They only needed to meet Collin, Émeric, and Artemis. Artemis seemed to have chosen Jun as her person for the night, though. She followed him around and sat on the back of any seat he chose. Thirty minutes after his bandmates arrived, there was another call, and Collin ran off to let more people in. Jun tagged along. This time, he was no help at all except for grabbing coats. Coming through the door was an entire horde of people he’d never met and only heard of.
Collin made quick work introducing him as everyone freed themselves from the requisite Chicago winter gear. The first was Alice, a sharp-looking woman barely out of her teens, who Collin introduced as his younger sister—actual blood sister. Holding Alice’s hand and looking shy was a young girl in a red frock coat and an old-fashioned hat in black felt. Collin called her Dana. She asked where Uncle Richard was and took off running down the hall to find him with Alice right behind her.
Jun was left contending with a person of no discernible gender, wearing pure white hair in braids and a long black coat in brocade. They took it off and handed it to him, revealing suit pants, a corset, and a dinner jacket with a high-low skirt that swirled around their thighs and the backs of their knees, although it barely covered anything in the front. They extended their hand to Jun. “Ellisandre. I’ve heard about you.”
