Page 48 of Damian & Jun: Episodes 5-8
The rest nodded in agreement.
“So, now we have to decide what to do going forward,” Jun said slowly.
Geun shoved himself up on his elbows, looking around the room in a circle. “Go independent.”
The five of them exchanged looks.
This wasn’t the first time they’d talked about this. It was clear on all their faces. The downtime up at the Estate had probably given them a lot of talking time. Jun was the one who needed to catch up.
“Independent.” Jun repeated the word. “We’ll all have to take on more.”
Jaewoong crossed his arms. “Mi Hi and Gigi have been talking. And your friends sent us some numbers when we sent them ours. We can do it even if it has to be small at first. We all have money.”
“I don’t.” It hurt to say, but Jun had to be honest.
“If we have money, you have money.” Yohei gave Jun a long look. “We only have what we have because we’ve had each other's backs. Just because Bak didn’t pay you doesn’t mean you didn’t earn it with us.”
Jun choked up. “You…you all…you have families, parents, siblings…”
“And we don’t have 5N without you.” Jaewoong jumped in. “Who writes our lyrics? Who’s our main vocalist?”
“I…I do when we make our own songs.”
“We like your songs best.” Su-jin grabbed Jun’s hand.
“So do the fans,” Jaewoong added.
“We’ll have to hire choreographers.”
“We can do most of our own work, and Gigi has already agreed to keep working with us,” Jaewoong countered. “We’re all veterans. At our ages, guys are either leaving or leveling up. We have so much more we know how to do than when we debuted.
“We don’t have musicians.”
“Chicago has musicians. The ones you sang with last night were pretty good. And we can create a lot of our own backtracks.”
“Recording studio,” Jun asked weakly. “I…I could ask Damian for space.”
“He has space?”
“This old church complex.”
“That’s big enough.”
Jun drew in a deep breath. “We still have to get out of our contracts.”
Geun stood with arms folded and feet apart. “We will.”
Yohei nodded, giving Jun a long, slow look. If the most steady of their group already believed in the math, then so did Jun. But damn it, it was scary.
Scary and liberating. They weren’t talking about finding a new label; they were talking about being their own. No more managers and no more contracts with shadowy figures.
They got back to the party in time for dinner to be served. Su-jin and Jaewoong ended up in a tight circle with Alice and Ash. Dana came over with her food and sat next to Jun where he’d settled with a place.
She pointed to his face. “What happened?”
Jun looked around, but Damian was over at the buffet table getting food, and no one else was looking their direction.
Should I lie? But he’d hated it when adults had lied to him.
